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Stream: Délétère - "Milites Pestilentiae"

There were a lot of reasons to go to Messe des Morts this year. Taake, Horna, Tsjuder and Sargeist performed at Montreal’s incredible third annual black metal fest — enough to make a black metal fan dizzy. The performance I perhaps looked forward to the most, though, was that of Délétère. Délétère’s a local Quebec band, not to be confused with another Quebec black metal band named Délétère, who performed for the first (and as far as I can tell, only) time at Messe des Morts. Due to poor flight planning, I missed Délétère’s set — they performed on the early half of the second day of the festival, on the day after American Thanksgiving — but I did score Délétère’s new demo tape (and Ephemer’s), saw a bunch of other killer bands, and had enough of a blast that I hope to be back next year. That Délétère tape, Sacrificium Necrothytum, rules.

We’ve featured Délétère on Invisible Oranges before, back on the FF/RW column when Délétère had just put out their first demo, Inopia et Morbo (free download on SVN OKKLT). On Inopia et Morbo, Délétère delivered melody-rich, atmosphere-heavy, cold black metal with gruff vocals. There was that lo-fi quality that a lot of Quebec bands share, too, giving the tape an otherworldly quality — I raided this weird old abandoned church and all I got was this Délétère tape. On Sacrificium Necrothytum, Délétère ups the atmosphere, polishes the sound and finds even hook-ier melodies. “Milites Pestilentiae”, the demo’s opener, is an absolute ripper that’s as catchy as it is punishing.

Sacrificium Necrothytum was available at Messe des Morts and will be available again, soon, on tape from Les Productions Hérétiques.

— Wyatt Marshall