MAÏEUTISTE - Veritas

6 songs
54:32 minutes
***** ****
Les Acteurs de l'Ombre

Bandpage

Four years ago, French black metal band Maïeutiste released their eponymous debut album, using every last minute of the medium CD to fill it with seventy-six minutes of music. This proved maybe to be a little much, because now, in the present time, Maïeutiste are back with their second longplayer Veritas, a half hour shorter than its predecessor, and also only featuring two musicians. Most of the old line-up seem to have left and will be replaced in the near future.

Trimming the fat really works wonders for Maïeutiste who consider themselves an avantgarde progressive black metal band. The progressive parts really do stand out on the new album, with most of the songs clocking in over seven minutes, giving the band ample room to add complex rhythmic structures, intricate guitar parts and majestic vocals. The record begins with Veritas – I, a splendid track that combines melodic black metal with technically flawless instrumentation. There is violence that might remind of later Emperor, there is drama that recalls visions of Borknagar, but all of this is done in their own way, giving the music a uniqueness it deserves. The following Infinitus stars like a brutal monster before adding acoustic guitars and going into a more experimental and incredibly gloomy direction. Later there are progressive metal parts, making this maybe not the band’s most accessible piece of music, but showing nevertheless what these guys are capable of. Spiramus is an acoustic ballad with acoustic guitar, violins and high vocals with a medieval flair. Highly unusual and unexpected but pleasant to listen to. Universum is a groovy black metal track that might have been slightly inspired by Bathory’s Viking metal excursions. At slightly over fifteen minutes, Vocat is the centrepiece of the album. Here you get a somewhat more avantgarde feeling, in the middle of doom metal part reminding of early Trouble, and later one might even call this catchy black metal. The album ends with Veritas – 2, a reprise of the opener, and is also listed as a quarter hour monster. Unfortunately this track tapers out after four minutes, then you get many minutes of nothing before one minute of experimental horror soundtrack music finishes the album.

So we are left with three quarters of an hour of exceptional progressive black metal, with all kinds of added influences from doom, folk, classical and avantgarde. That the album is much shorter than the debut works actually in its favour. If only they could have done with the irritating idea of a hidden bonus track. But apart from that, I have to proclaim that Maïeutiste have made a huge step forward, and fans of intelligent black metal should be happy to feast on this great work of art.