Emanating as if from the foul-smelling, poisoned swamps, the music of debutants Viande will make you claw at your throat, enveloping you in suffocating darkness, and before you know it, it will have on your knees gasping for air, with a blood-stained bag on your head. Soon enough the clobbering begins in pitch black darkness and amidst the mind-numbing cacophony, with eerie sounds ringing about, one thing becomes clear – there are stranger, darker forces involved here. More than just another dark death metal band, Viande are conjuring up different sounds and atmospheric elements to create a truly terrifying form of death metal, one that doesn’t wallow in misery for too long and is more content bashing skulls in. The full length remains an amorphous exercise in darkness, be it with the use of bestial-sounding primordial catharsis, harrowing doom-laden passages, or just their own kind of unsettling industrial ambience, they’re on to something and it transcends mere Incantation-worship. L’abime dévore les âmes is an accomplished debut with soul-scarring qualities.