{"id":505872,"date":"2026-02-28T19:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505872\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T19:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T19:46:11","slug":"de-labime-nait-laube-rituel-initiation-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/505872\/","title":{"rendered":"De l\u2019Ab\u00eeme Na\u00eet l\u2019Aube – Rituel : Initiation Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Atmospheric post-black metal is quite the concept. Both titular subgenres span wide varieties of inspirations, levels of aggression, and affinities for emotion. Done well, they are gateways to catharsis and emotional storytelling. So I was intrigued when Rituel : Initiation caught my eye. This is the debut full-length release from Swiss post-black metal band De l\u2019Ab\u00eeme Na\u00eet l\u2019Aube, recommended, or so I\u2019m told, for fans of Alcest and Heilung. You never quite know what you\u2019re going to get with a debut, but I was eager enough from the concept to want more. On paper, Rituel : Initiation could go anywhere.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the first few minutes of Rituel : Initiation act as an interesting microcosm for its whole: \u201cUne Pleine Absence\u201d lulls you in slowly with heavy atmosphere, wordless sighs, throat singing (I believe from lead vocalist S\u00e9bastien Defabiani), and acoustic passages, slowly building in intensity. It does this so effectively, in fact, that when the guitars do arrive, they feel overly jagged, loud, and harsh. I signed up for a post-black metal album\u2014I expected loud. But De l\u2019Ab\u00eeme Na\u00eet l\u2019Aube do somber atmosphere very well, and they do post and black metal well, but it\u2019s interesting how the two can be at odds with each other in this style. Ten minutes later, this moment is forgotten, and the guitars sound as natural as anything else. \u201cUne Pleine Absence\u201d is still going, incorporating tremolos and depressive shrieks as a heavier atmospheric element, and you know well what to expect over the rest of Rituel : Initiation.<\/p>\n

Rituel : Initiation by De l\u2019Ab\u00eeme Na\u00eet l\u2019Aube<\/a><\/p>\n

This intersection of rough-around-the-edges post metal, black metal aggression, and atmospheric melancholy seems to define both Rituel : Initiation and De l\u2019Ab\u00eeme Na\u00eet l\u2019Aube. \u201cLe Vertige d\u2019une Descendance\u201d is similar to the intro in that it starts slowly and gives bassist Valerian Burki a moment to shine. It leans more post than black, with some strong riffs that give the song groove and, if you\u2019ll forgive a technical term, head-nod factor. \u201cUn Sanctuaire de Cendres\u201d is much more blackened than post, but when Fantine Sch\u00fctz\u2019s clean singing soars through the gloom, it\u2019s a genuinely touching moment. Tremolos towards the end from guitarists Dominique Blanc and Kilian Caddoux counterbalance nicely with Valentin Boada\u2019s frantic drumming, and here, the intersections work very well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If I were to criticize one thing about Rituel : Initiation, it\u2019s that the blended styles don\u2019t allow for a ton of memorability. There are great moments throughout the five tracks\u2014I\u2019ve mentioned a few already, and want to highlight the slow march riffing around the midpoint of \u201cUn Sanctuaire de Cendres\u201d as well. But generally, Rituel : Initiation does not feel very strongly structured as an album. Songs, all but one over eleven minutes long, move from one idea to the next coherently and naturally, but in such a way as to evade hooks or moments of particular catchiness or impact. I always enjoy listening, but after the fifty-three minutes are done, I don\u2019t have much impression of specific songs I liked; rather, it\u2019s moments here and there that I know were early or late in the session. This makes sense of the style De l\u2019Ab\u00eeme Na\u00eet l\u2019Aube play, but it also gives the impression of a dense album that I perhaps still need to spend more time with to truly crack.<\/p>\n

Still, I like what De l\u2019Ab\u00eeme Na\u00eet l\u2019Aube are doing here. Cold, regal, aggressive, anguished, and balanced on a knife\u2019s edge\u2014there\u2019s some good metal here! As \u201cUne Absolute Pr\u00e8sence\u201d builds to the album\u2019s climactic end, I can\u2019t help but be impressed. I wouldn\u2019t have hated more editing\u2014there\u2019s a lot of metal here too\u2014but too much of a good thing isn\u2019t a bad thing. Rituel : Initiation is, in my mind, an exciting debut, the kind that speaks of genuine potential. Color me intrigued.<\/p>\n

Rating: 3.0\/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 192 kbps mp3
Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records<\/a>
Websites: danapostmetal.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/dana.postmetal<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: February 13th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Atmospheric post-black metal is quite the concept. Both titular subgenres span wide varieties of inspirations, levels of aggression,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[43409,976,34229,23275,49,48,201656,75,186515,201657,176616,341,34267,208,209,201658,985],"class_list":{"0":"post-505872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-43409","9":"tag-3-0","10":"tag-alcest","11":"tag-black-metal","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-de-labime-nait-laube","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-feb26","17":"tag-heilung","18":"tag-hypnotic-dirge-records","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-post-metal","21":"tag-review","22":"tag-reviews","23":"tag-rituel-initiation","24":"tag-swedish-metal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}