Hyperactive Belgian musician Déhà (Wa All Die (laughing), Merda Mundi, Maladie, Alenda, Aurora Borealis, Khel etc…) comes back with a new black metal project called Sources of I, composed (except for him, obviously) of Bulgarian musicians Dragshan, Delian and Vortep. Their debut EP, Faces, is set to be released in August through Tanquam Aegri Somnia (which is part of Kaotoxin Records).
First of all, Déhà is a fucking beast. When you look at his work, you see that not only he is by himself in most of his bands, which is already impressive, but he also experiments with so many genres that you know you have a highly educated person with a desire to try everything. I mean, you’ve got some grindcore, black metal, avant-garde, drone, doom, harsh noise, post-rock, ambient or dark noise. This is one talented motherfucker, I can tell you that.
Faces is a three songs EP, not too long, but long enough (21 minutes) that it merges elements of doom and black, with a prevalent black feeling, mostly due to the “high pitched” voice of Déhà (which is the comparison with Gorgoroth comes from, I guess) and aggressive drums.
“Discrepancy of Life” is a slow rise to power during which we go through our narrator’s lamentations and self-depreciation (“For I was born rotten, putrid seed”), leading to a transcending climax. Those kinds of doomy intoxicating riffs transport me to another place during those 9 minutes of cleverly implanted ambiance.
The first song was really a perfect introduction of the band’s universe, because now you know what kind of feeling you can expect, and that’s when you can finish your prey with a falcon punch in the stomach. That punch is what “Shadow of Stars” is – this is where we lost a little more of the doom metal influences and went straight up to blasting evil black metal.
Now the final song, “When you will close my eyes to the light,” is kind of special. It’s not better than the others, everything is pretty much on par, but it’s lyrically that I enjoyed it the most. While the two previous songs were well written with a good rhythm and words that flow perfectly, here Déhà choose to sing a pre-existing poem by Belgian poet artist Émile Verhaeren (who lived in the second half of the 19th century). “Lorsque tu fermeras mes yeux” is a beautiful poem to put in a black metal EP under its original form, and a good reminder that darkness can also be beautiful as well as hiding in the most respected pieces of literature.
