TAN KOZH "Lignages Oublies"

TAN KOZH

"Lignages Oublies"

For a genre that is supposedly in steep decline, black metal is producing an amazing amount of strong works in 2019. Names like DRASTUS, WHITE WARD, and ASAGRAUM come to mind. TAN KOZH have come up with another one. This pleasing little gem of an album hails from the BM hotbed of France and  brings us 10 tunes inspired by the deepest myths of the Indo-European past.

None of the songs are overlong, but they all demonstrate a lot of songwriting skills, with each tune having a different sound. "Troisienne Fonction" alternates gloomy acoustics with dark, heavy and mid-paced tones. "De Brest a Brest-Litovsk" erupts with war-like aggression,  "Et la Haine nous sauvera tou" has a killer evil groove that DARKTHRONE would approve of and "A la gloire d'Indra" has a timelost, majestic feel of ancient ages far beyond the reach of soulless, destructive technology. The flow of the album is incredible and each song perfectly fits with the ones before and after. The vocals are very grim and gravelly and all lyrics are in French, which renders them impenetrable for the most part but which also gives them that peculiar "liquid" quality that only French possesses.

A kind of homely simplicity is the key to TAN KOZH's appeal. The songs are so easy to process but also with cool melodic touches. And yes, it does sound like music from an elder time. This may not be super easy to find in physical form, so check on the link for Antiq Records provided here if you want to go that route. Another obscure but potent bit of black metal wizardry in 2019.

ANTIQ RECORDS

TAN KOZH