The French band Seth honours the black metal scene with their first full-length album called “Les Blessures de l’Âme”. The sombre and depressive lyrics make you see exactly what True Vampiric Black Metal is. Vicomte Vampire Arkames’ vocals are, for my part, a true blessing, and his French accent adds an obscure side to the devastating melody. Guitar wise, it keeps us wanting more throughout this little masterpiece, it attacks us with melancholic, violent and very fast riffs. Heimoth shows he’s an experienced guitarist with a few classical acoustic guitar parts. The bassist, Faucon Noir, is also a talented musician. He follows the beat without problem, but once again, the keyboard confirms that Seth are that good a band. It adds a very sombre, yet melodic touch. If you’d separate it from the band, it would almost sound like a power metal synth, but rest assured, it doesn’t modify Seth’s obscure power in any way. Last but not least, drummer Alsvid adds this quartet’s last, brutal touch. I find it amazing that Alsvid masters his double bass drums very well and his cymbals, of course typically black metal, add to the degree of difficulty by being off beat, all the while keeping the rhythm, which reminds me of Immortal. Seth is one of my greatest black metal discoveries and I recommend “Les Blessures de l’Âme” to every musician in need of inspiration and of course, to all fans of dark, violent music.