Full Album Stream: Year Of No Light: Tocsin – new album

Rain, finally, and with it fresher air alongside long overdue visit to Debemur Morti Productions BandCamp page, where the full new YEAR OF NO LIGHT album, ‘Tocsin’, awaits. Released on November the 29th, 2013, this “unforgettable journey beyond the laws of post-metal, doom metal, hypnotic musical forms and any other influence marked with the seal of pure mysticism... a wholly metaphysical experience [and btw:] maximum volume delivers maximum results!” is already appearing on some “Best of the Year” lists. ‘Tocsin’ is YEAR OF THE LIGHT second release in 2013, with their epic ‘Vampyr’ pawing the way in May 2013 through Music Fear Satan. Purchase ‘Tocsin’ through Debemur Morti store here or get it from BandCamp here, as well as enjoy (and purchase from) the assiduous Frenchmen extensive catalog here (BandCamp):

“This third full length album, and third masterpiece, is a doom expedition that moves from slow, tribal pounding and shimmering ambience through an echo chamber of melodic guitar notes and into a vast, black pit of fuzz-bombed despair streaked with feedback and touched by the pale beckoning hand of death. Extremely heavy, divinely stellar, and epic:”

YEAR OF NO LIGHT were reportedly just one more band started after too many Belgian beers under the Bordeaux, France sun (in 2001), and for a band that wasn’t a top priority for neither bassist and keyboardist Johan Sébenne, drummer Bertrand Sébenne nor guitarists Jérôme Alban and Christophe Mora, YEAR OF NO LIGHT have been quite busy over the years. They “slowly fermented both on-stage and in rehearsal” before recording their first demo tape in 2004 which allegedly earned the group a reputation for sounding like “THE CURE playing sludge”. Counting both Sébennes, Alban  and newly recruited guitarist Pierre Anouilh and vocalist and keyboardist Julien Perez, YEAR OF NO LIGHT recorded their debut album entitled ‘Nord’ which was issued on Radar Swarm in 2006 in France and a year later on Crucial Blast in North America. Ned Raggett, AllMusic, used words such as “unique”, “magnificent”, “memorable riffs” and “epic atmosphere” when describing the album which can be enjoyed in full (deluxe edition released in 2012) below:

Live album ‘Live At Roadburn 2008’ came out next and plenty of splits later, YEAR OF NO LIGHT recorded their second full-length, ‘Ausserwelt’, literary “an effort of seismic repercussions that says so much without uttering a single word” as put by Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic (more here), since the record was a fully instrumental work released on Conspiracy Records and Music Fear Satan in 2010:

“…yet the range of sounds, visions, and emotions it manages to evoke in spite of this are nothing short of breathtaking. Forget the obvious inspirational post-metal launching pads that gave this band their start along with the many important instrumental architects competing in this space because YEAR OF NO LIGHT have arguably established their own aesthetic “lane” with this release, and it’s fair to say the wait was worth every minute. In the simplest possible terms, it all comes down to layering, layering, layering, which the French sextet applies with abandon to these four epic-length trance-metal movements, through the efforts of three guitarists, two drummers, and untold synth/electronic multi-tasking, resulting in an unusually lush tableau of swirling psychedelics, mesmerizing drones, and earth-shattering climaxes (and, notably, hardly a sign of the hardcore underpinnings shared by their American counterparts),” [continued Eduardo Rivadavia, AllMusic]

YEAR OF NO LIGHT in 2010 featured: Jérôme Alban on guitar, Pierre Anouilh on guitar, Bertrand Sébenne on drums and keyboards, Johan Sébenne on bass and keyboards, Shiran Kaïdine on guitar and Mathieu Mégemont on drums and keyboards:

Another three splits later, the band was approached by friend and promoter Guillaume Gwardeath who asked them to create and perform an original piece for a “to be defined silent film” which eventually turned out to be C.T. Dreyer's “Vampyr” (a 1932 French-German horror film directed by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer). Instead of composing the score for the film, YEAR OF NO LIGHT dedicated themselves to Dreyer's obsession for beauty, death, love, vengeance, sin, forgiveness, evil, redemption and faith. They first performed the piece in 2010 and continued to tour with it throughout Europe for two years. “Vampyr” was performed for the last time in their home town, Bordeaux, in 2012. The performance was recorded and released in May 2013 on Music Fear Satan: 

YEAR OF NO LIGHT features: Pierre Anouilh – guitar, Jérôme Alban – guitar and keyboard, Johan Sébenne – bass and electronics, Bertrand Sébenne – drums and keyboard, Shiran Kaidine – guitar and Mathieu Mégemont – drums and electronics