Creature – Ex Catedra 2LP

Hailing from the murky depths of Brittany, CREATURE has been working actively at crafting some of today’s most exciting, forward-thinking and unique metal music. With already two self-released albums under its belt (“Inquiétudes” in 2018, and “Contes Funèbres” in 2019) in less than a year of existence, the band returns with a new full-length, “Ex Cathedra”, an eccentric work exuding art and culture from each groove.
The project of sole member Raphaël Fournier, CREATURE is a mighty, undefinable and slightly worrying beastly entity with ever shifting and blurry contours which leave the flabbergasted listener in awe. Rooted in the avant-garde and symphonic black metal from the 90s as much as it is in classic epic prog, CREATURE’s music is intrepid and elegant, not bound by any genre, rule nor norm. Taking cues also from Baroque, 60s-80s French pop, classical music, fanfare, French poetry and a whole life of listening to music of all kinds, Fournier’s brew features intricate orchestrations of inventive guitars, thunderous rhythms, heavy bass, majestic keyboards, horns and choirs. His work truly carries the stigmas of a Leonardesque genius applied to a musical score, because of the constant tension between an exuberant creative research and an evident love for classical canons of ideal beauty and formal perfection.
Despite the meticulous arrangements and the complex geometric shapes exhibited, “Ex Cathedra” is surprisingly coherent and by no means a collage of sounds, nor a genre-hopping mess. Fournier has digested all of his influences to create his own progressive black metal style, his spectacular songwriting holding everything together in a natural way. Accompanied by soul-clenching lyrics, the music breathes, expands and contracts before soaring to unexpected heights, towards an oneiric hyperuranion where gorgeous melodies and atmospheres of cosmic beauty await.
Alternately energetic, thrilling, poetic and melancholic (often all at once), CREATURE’s “Ex Cathedra” stays always surprising and inebriating, with a sense of grandeur pervading it all.