Celeste - Infidèle(s) (Denovali) 2017
7
If Celeste could ever have been criticised for anything, it’d maybe be being too intense. Infidèle(s) isn’t entirely a remedy, but its assault is far more measured, each of its tracks offering a sense of momentum, drama and, more importantly, some breathing space. Each track offers its own identity – the thuggish, bloody-knuckled “Sombre Sont Tes Déboires”, the scything savagery of “Sotte, Sans Devenir” – while allowing them to contribute to the album’s sweeping scope as well. Johan Girardeau holds nothing back, each seething howl more affecting than the last, and there are few drummers around who can maintain the surgical brutality of Antoine Royer, but in terms of content, Infidèle(s) sounds like a band working from a subtly different but drastically more ambitious space.