It’s French month at Tasting Notes HQ – so it would only be right to review this absolute ball-banger of a crusty grindcore deluge from Rouen’s Pilori. ‘Sans Adieu’ has literally flown out of the traps faster than the SNCF on a non-strike day.
Now in their tenth year as a band, and with two solid releases behind them, this third record is probably one of the most important of their career thus far. Opting for hammering their intent home with a combination of gritty death metal progressions, chunky chugs and the warm snuggle of a ripplingly fast, blackened maelstrom, it is clear they have succeeded with consummate ease.
There is, I would suggest, more in common with bands like Mastiff in heaviness, and Conjuror in cleverness, than bands on the more straight grinding duties like their blisteringly fast countrymen in Benighted. The ten tracks on display here are balanced, dynamic and gratuitously pulverizing, yet do seem to be tainted with that crusty edge – not dissimilar to dried egg yolk around the rim of a cup of delicious tea. This is remarkably pleasant yet wholly nasty all at the same time.
Not at all scared to break tradition, they channel some far more ‘post’ ideas in tracks like ‘Volontaire’ and the subversive interlude that is the title track – but you need it. Go listen to the brace of head smashers at the heart of the album that are ‘Chiendent’ and ‘Chaos Rampant’ and you will see exactly what I mean.
‘Sans Adieu’ translates as ‘without goodbye’ by the way, so I am off.
Best Paired With: Slamming doors, screeching tyres and an insatiable desire to be able to see your own breath on a cold morning.
‘Sans Adieu’ by Pilori is out now on Frozen Records/Terrain Vague Records.
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