apanthropy

Vendanges
La Danse du Souvenir
(independent release)
To Be Released: September 20th, 2026

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1 – La Fortresse Verte
2 – Dernière danse d’un vieil homme (et ses innombrables délires)
3 – Matinée D’Octobre
4 – Ils ne reconnaissent plus rien
5 – La Lavandière
6 – Rentrons, il se fait tard
–

“…’La Danse du Souvenir’ is a natural progression of a songwriter who not only possesses a great musical concept but fully understands how to wield it and how to communicate it to the focused audience. The interactions between genres are not simple phrases stacked end-to-end, without direction, but integrated components, like the relationship between soil, rain, and sun, and how it leads to life through seed and vine…”

Youth and memory are different topics for different people. The veterans amongst the underground have left an extensive body of dynamic work that will perhaps never be replicated in artistic intensity. The young musicians of the contemporary scene are entering a realm of established musical identity that is infamous for both its staunch rigidity and constant evolution. One can go out, buy a guitar, buy a drum machine, buy a recording interface, and turn out a demo. And they do. In droves. The duality of the situation is something we have spoken of frequently amongst features and reviews; in one sense, the scene is constantly attracting new talent, in another sense, the concentration of ‘good’ talent, which is already universally subjective as it is, is very miniscule.

The end sum is a great noise.

When you venture past the wall of noise and look deep into the underground, there are, for certain, projects and bands to be found that are drastically underappreciated for their creative nuance and approach. Black metal is not about fame, that is true, and most of the musicians within the genre clearly understand that; it is not about follower counts and social media shares. The aural work represents a creative language and an artistic dichotomy against popular and/or mainstream culture. Some people use the platform to espouse the downfall of the western morality – abandon its religions, its values, its systems and boundaries. Others explore extreme political avenues, extreme emotional states, disastrous and cursed topics of many sorts. There are others who focus on isolation, youth, and memory. Unconventional topics on most accords, but there are many amongst us that simply exist in a manner where they either self-isolate or isolate due to their own environments. When verbalized through soundwaves and composition, the outward expression is often more deeply personal than that of simple proclamations of anti-religion, anti-life, and anti-humanity.

Creative purity is achieved through the single musician and his individual project. There is no competing ego other than oneself. There is no democracy of the creative thought process.

Vendanges is French. When translated to English, it means ‘grape harvest.’ This is a subtle nod to a youth spent in rural France. Memories and youth are a strong force; it is a passionate conflagration of emotion and spirit. One is charging into their destiny with unstoppable and unbreakable momentum yet still holds firmly to the memories of their youth. Something as simple as family dinners, walks amongst the fields of Burgundy, and the vast emptiness of the unpolluted night sky, can burn so deeply into one’s heart that it becomes something they carry until they can carry it no longer. This is the creative foundation of Vendanges.

Created in 2026 by French solo multi-instrumentalist Espoir, Vendanges is a creative outlet for deeply personal topics. Black metal can convey these concepts because bringing power to memory is ritual that we have engaged in since the early days of human civilization. Bringing power to memory brings power itself, whether positive or negative, creative or destructive, both to those who initiate and those who have shared in the experience. Bringing power to memory has created great works of art; music, literature, visual works of many sorts. Bringing power to memory has made men take up swords and cut one another down, generation after generation. Memory is a powerful thing; a cherished but ever-fading gift for some, a massive burden for others.

Described by some as ‘rural black metal,’ the project released a self-titled demo in early August of 2026, at roughly ten-and-a-half minutes in length, spread over three tracks. This initial offering fused dungeon synth textures – medieval or ancient tones and melodies – to raw, gritty black metal. There is a folk presence at times, complimentary in segments, commanding at other times. Being that the content of this demo was deeply personal, it is no doubt that we get a more detailed look at the musicality of the creator. Many details presented themselves over the course of this initial demo offering. The artist creating the work is 18 years old. The technicality of the compositional aspects and both the physical performance and execution reveal a musician with some degree of competency that is greater than most. The percussion one would normally expect in this situation to be provided by a combination of software and hardware; drum machines and emulators. This is not the case. One hears right away, these are not lifeless mechanized strikes of the exact same velocity and tone repeatedly, but rich, detailed, and dynamic live playing. The production was not a treble-intense or reverb-heavy approach, but the exact opposite, a bare approach of precise tones working in conjunction with one another, distorted, nasty, gritty, but never hiding behind it.

Apanthropy gave the self-titled work the Demo of the Month respects for Beyond the Treeline – Vol. II, August 2026.

When it was discovered that a full-length album was coming in September – September 20th, 2026, to be exact – it was a great interest, for many reasons. The demo explored an often-unexplored subject. The composing was cohesive and deliberate, with a sense of artistic maturity that surpassed many contemporaries and many standards. The question also exists; will the debut album surpass the musical quality of the demo? The question is more directed in a sense of composing and fluidity and less so with physical technicality. That doesn’t necessarily stand as the only point of interest, but a major one, one that many will focus on naturally.

Entitled La Danse du Souvenir, the debut effort of Vendanges takes shape across 35 minutes, six songs total. It is a true independent release created with DIY ethos. It represents a totally cohesive musical concept, merging epic and sweeping raw black metal with a deep folk undertone and a great deal of territory ceded to meditative and trance-inducing dungeon synth. It takes what was established on the self-titled demo and focuses more on the fine details of the individual instrument’s interactions with one another. Production is important here. The overall playback sound is critical to the actual shape of the songs. The production is gritty but it’s clean and clear. Clarity allows melodic interactions to exist without restraint; there is nothing to hide behind here. There is a spatial sensation – a feeling of ‘wideness’ – to the drums, where cymbals splay and splash with organic flair, the snare sounds pure, and the bass drum is a warm tempered presence. Guitar tones are strong, joining together in unison as a forceful driving power, and separating into rich melodies and complimentary rhythm riffs at leisure, without losing tonal power in either state. The layering, sometimes multiple lead melodies interacting with one another at the same time, is always clear. Of course, this naturally crystalline state allows for great presence from the bass guitar, presence that is not wasted by simply doubling the chord root notes or replicating the rhythm guitar components, but an actual instrument, an actual functioning piece of the composition, that adds to the overall structure and flow of the songs.

‘La Forteresse Verte’ opens the record. Where the self-titled demo had a bit of a lead-in and build up, La Danse du Souvenir takes the opposite approach. Blastbeats and grinding tremolo form a wall of sound that shapes into a stomping mid-tempo rhythmic phrase, driven by blaring fifths. Melodic layers form and disperse, taking multiple tonal shapes, orbiting the central tonal structure of the song. The central sonic narrative is ever forward moving, with a great amount of aural detail blossoming from its power. A middle bridge phrase shows a change in vocal approach complimenting a weeping melody that resolves into the intro once again to close the track. The writing style and composing do not follow a traditional verse/chorus/verse structure, nor crumble into avant-garde and noise territory of any sort, but it treks and journeys musically, like how one would wander amongst trees in a forest.

‘Derniere danse d’un vieil homme (Et ses innombrables délires)’ is an opportunity to demonstrate one’s capacity as a songwriter, with extended lengths touching past the nine-minute mark; one of two tracks possessing such lengths. This track is nearly the length of the first demo, allowing for a great deal of creative room and many sonic causeways to explore. Clean, melancholic, and slow guitar – a lone signal – keeps the listener company during the first portion of the song. The sound of the night wind and lull of crickets that were so often the background noise of many of our childhoods accompanies the guitar, a subtle detail, but effective. The build-up transitions into epic displays of intelligent chord progressions, central rhythm, and dense melodic layering; pure raw black metal, scathing. Fluid notes feed fluid beats and measures, creating a state of constant motion. Once again, there are no circular musical narratives at play, this carries an obvious progressive structure that has a defined purpose. The track slows down towards the final third, once again smoldering down to clean guitar and the ambience of the night. A depressive central melody leads the song into termination, with an ever-dancing rhythm guitar feeding its flames.

A folk-tinged interlude of acoustic guitar and an array of medieval-feeling tones walks the listener into the second half of the record. The use of strong central tonal cores constantly engaged by melodic interactions, orbiting around in precise manner, remains a constant and highly effective methodology for the next two songs, ‘Ils ne reconnaissent plus rien’ and ‘La Lavandière,’ with ‘La Lavandière’ taking on a distinctly pagan feel, an almost Eastern European feel to the way its riff structures take form. The keyboard work stands out more in the second half of the record, playing key roles in complimenting melodies or leading the melody outright.

‘Rentrons, il se fait tard’ carries the responsibility of properly concluding the record. It is the second track to break the nine-minute mark, and is territory ceded to entrancing dungeon synth. Much in homage to the earliest, simplistic strains of dungeon synth, simple background atmospherics merge with warm synth tones creating a slow trance-like state of introspection or imagination. It is the feeling of peace and quiet, happy to be left alone with oneself, a sensation of isolation.

Those interested in the musicality of French acts such as Peste Noire and Sale Freux, along with broader names such as Drudkh, Fellwarden, or Gallowbraid, Vendanges is within that spectrum and scope.

La Danse du Souvenir is a natural progression of a songwriter who not only possesses a great musical concept but fully understands how to wield it and how to communicate it to the focused audience. The interactions between genres are not simple phrases stacked end-to-end, without direction, but integrated components, like the relationship between soil, rain, and sun, and how it leads to life through seed and vine. This being the creative outlet of a trained 18-year-old musician makes it fascinating, as youth and memory create a powerful combination, but having the technical songwriting and playing skills to convey that concept at a young age is something extremely rare in the underground black metal scene. Vendanges, with La Danse du Souvenir, has broken through the cacophony of oversaturation, and is becoming a project that is worth watching closely. Many years has the flame of black metal burned, for decades now, and with new talent of this caliber bringing offerings to the pyre, we shall see the flame cast its light many years into the future.

Label:
Band: Vendanges

AJK