### Borgia: Ecclesia

#### 30/08/10 || The Duff

A band that sounds like Deathspell Omega mixed with Immolation and Enslaved. Excuse me, did I just die and GO TO METAL HEAVEN? DsO are the new hotshot band of the century, their sound integrated into modern-day metal every which way by acts such as black metal band Leviathan and tech-death-ambient Kiwi band Ulcerate to name but two.

Immolation have inspired a shitload of acts despite being to this day criminally underrated; Ens-fucken-laved is the cream of the crop of black/Viking metal, probably as inspirational to the scene as Emperor, Burzum, Mayhem if only having had taken a step back in forging the earliest incarnations of BM as prog was still much spurned within the trees of Norwegian mountaintops at the time of their birthing – you could say they were the child-genius with the ten-inch dick in the playground; not even the teachers are gonna like that kid.

So is there still value to Borgia, a French black/death/ambient band that has released but one E.P. (and some demos) prior to its debut full length? My answer would be absolutely, but their potential remains to be completely tapped into going from the material presented on “Ecclesia”, the top-notch riffwriting unfortunately marred by an overall lack of flow and a slackness in arrangement that should hopefully only improve with time.

The band is a three-piece, bassist/guitarist Charles and lone vocalist Geraud de Verenhe complemented by the very capable drumming of Gilles de la Carnade (methinks aliases?). The album is a nine track affair, “Te Deum” being an instrumental of priests chanting much in a “hey, don’t these guys fuck children? WHERE’S YOUR FUCKING GOD NOW?!?!@!” kind of manner – so eight cuts overall is what you get, resplendent with quality and brimming with the exuberance of a newly formed outfit.

The pace of the album is pretty much set with the opener – an array of grimy, malevolent riffs that range from the aggressively picked to the trawling to the atmospheric, eerie and rung out chords delivered much in a Deathspell Omega manner, all running in quite the linear fashion. The musicianship is astounding but not in a truly breathtaking manner, the spotlight chiefly on the tight, organic drummer (real natural sounding drums; the production overall is crisp and dry, basically ideal for this sound).

The second highlighted performance comes with the vocalist, Geraud being capable of mixing a range of vocal styles and languages (Latin, French, Italian and Spanish), sounding evil in ways only the most practiced of black metal bands can fathom – I would label him an obnoxious whore in a girl’s frilly shirt, but the guy displays some balls-out mastery of the black arts and a use of language that extends beyond “Oyvé! Choucroute! BASILICA!! GUACAMOLE!!!” – mock him only if you want to look like an arrogant cockfucker.

Individually, each track is a success, but for an album of this calibre, some continuity would not go amiss. Track “Litamie Du Misanthrope” is probably the most standout as it is around this point in the album, despite the lack of enthralling arrangements (but I stress, killer, killer music), that the band’s inexperience shines through – slow-paced, it kills the flow of the album, even though the ending is one of the coolest endings to any song I’ve heard in a while from an up-and-coming outfit (a hair raising moment to classic Enslaved standards).

Yet another misstep is, amidst all this catchy as all fuck black/death metal, parts of tracks “Extasis” and “Habemus Papam” are immemorable; not bad as such, but once more there is a sense of interrupted flow (although I’m sure this is all entirely subjective – some of you will warm to the sudden lack of hooks). In conclusion, this album is incredible, and I’m being picky because the potential for this band is gigantic, but I feel I’m missing out on something that could have been far more incredible – only time will tell, I guess.

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Paradigms Recordings
- Website: Borgia MySpace
- Band
- Geraud de Verenhe: vocals
- Charles d’Ocres: guitars, bass
- Gilles de la Carnade: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Le Bucher Des Vanites
- 02. Par La Croix Et La Banmere
- 03. Litamie Du Misanthrope
- 04. Des Martyrs… Allegorie De La Foi
- 05. Te Deum
- 06. Extasis
- 07. Flagellum Dei
- 08. Conquistadores
- 09. Habemus Papam