‘Le silence impossible à entendre…Se subir, être son propre bourreau… Tourmenté, lassé, le reflet est gris…’/ ‘The silence impossible to hear… To endure oneself, to be one’s own executioner… Tormented, weary, the reflection is gray…’ (Solitude)

Hailing from Bordeaux, and featuring members of Deletär and Faucheuse, Bombardement return with their third full-length, Dans La Fournaise (In The Furnace), and follow-up to 2022’s Le Future Est Là (The Future Is Here).  The band continue to hone their Discharge-inspired d-beat battery.  But, as ever, they do so in a way that refashions these influences, leaning with vigour into aspects that others, perhaps, neglect.

The rhythm guitars are as lacerating as you would anticipate and build into a relentless, densely layered groove.  Meanwhile, the solos are so insanely exuberant that they can’t help but bring a smile to the face.  The urgently staccato vocals are delivered with a rabid velocity as they explore the emotional solitude and slow violence of modern life.

And just when you think you have a handle on them, the band drop a shoulder and take you somewhere rather unexpected.  The chunky thrash metal riffage of Survie (Survival) is a particular pleasure as are the layered vocals of the boisterous, and surprisingly expansive, closer Bombardement, with its haunting cry of ‘Perdues’ (‘Lost’).