Sortilège Review

Band	Sortilège
Album	Sortilège
Type	EP
Released	1983
Genres	Heavy Metal
Labels	Axe Killer
Length	18:22
Ranked	#26 for 1983 , #3,431 all-time

Reviewer :  TheBerzerker         Rating :  95 / 100

An album worthy of dedicating to overall French music history. No other French metal album has the right stuff to be a threat to this album.

Historically, although French music scene was inarguably not the best, or at least not the most successful, there always were some impeccable composers or musicians like Debussy or Ravel. The album I'm mentioning here is undeniably one of the best music pieces France has ever seen after Ravel. If I am to come up with a word to describe the French metal scene, it can be abridged in a single word that is "Decadence", (I would like to make it clear this may or may not be entirely true and it is only a reflection of my personal experiences) even though I cannot link the country itself or the French culture to decadence, it has somehow represented the overall French metal scene for decades now.

However, here Sortilège stands, featuring something completely different from decadent; an aberration from the originality of the scene; the great escape; a perfection, perhaps. Its exceptionality comes from its riffs and vocals. Let's first go into the vocals: a high-pitched typical power/heavy metal vocal set, but this only encompasses one conspicuous point of Augustin's vocals. He remarkably produces a performance that can easily and, perhaps only, be compared to Midnight of Crimson Glory. Two vocalists share the extremely high noted vocal lines as well as its dramatic texture. It is as if the vocal is "acting" instead of "singing". The only difference between the two maginificent vocal talents is that I cannot understand a damn word Augustin sings, because I don't speak French, sadly. Still, I can still assure you that you all will regret dying without having listened to his impeccable and utmost vocal performances. (Especially on some tracks like Progeniture, Gladiateur and the eponymous one where the dynamic dramati-zation of singing is at its summit) Riffs are definitely the most striking and noticeable characteristics of this many-way-great album. I personally have never experienced any guitar riff so light and rhythmical in heavy metal that it even almost sounds comical or perhaps more precisely, "funnily". They composed their songs so cleverly that they tried to distinguish their music with above-mentioned traits as well as to maintain certain level of originality to the genre, namely, the heavy metal, by using the minimalistic guitar riffs: only 3~5 riffs per songs in a relatively shorter interval compared to any other genres, well, except for black metal.

How can I conclude this album? This album not only shows typical heavy metal but also its own uniqueness in their very own way, not in a French way, which I found very appealing. I can almost say the only French-ness in this album is their lyrics. I recommend this album to all who genuinely enjoy real and pleasant music who will gladly appreciate the musical contemplation Soltilege has put into consideration when they released this awesome shit, which is perceptible the moment you play their very first song.