Non Serviam don't obey. The anonymous collective do nothing 'as it should be done', much to our delight, and above all have fun turning codes and genres upside down, respecting no boundaries in any of the side-projects involving them (from the ambient noise landscapes of Hiverlucide to the rap/industrial/black metal of Biollante and the funereal trip-hop poetry of Néant). So what about this Labyrinthe? Could it be that by giving free rein to its musical impulses here and there, Non Serviam is refocusing? Would Non Serviam's high production rate dilute its creativity?
You bet. Labyrinthe comes a year after Death Ataraxia, which itself came a year after We Are Nothing but Your Krill, and this big EP heralds a more substantial album due out soon. Non Serviam appropriates the mythological figure of the Minotaur to lose us in the meanders of their monstrous, polycephalous creation, as unpredictable as ever. Extreme music finds its definition here: adventurous, uncomfortable, liberated. Non Serviam mixes putridity with elegance, deafening noise, nuisance and contemplation. La Morsure du Sel and its menacing diction, which oscillates between a clear voice, demonic borborygms and a few words chanted somewhere between incantation and Biollante rap, weighs in with all its funereal rhythm and already plunges us into chaos. Black metal, industrial, noise: we don't really know, we don't really care, the labels just don't stick.
You don't go through Non Serviam's work and come out unscathed. You leave a few feathers behind, but you also gain a few scars. The screams of the title track seem to leave no room for the human. Opaque, monumental, grandiloquent and slightly hermetic, this labyrinth welcomes no visitors. The hypnotic Putrescine de Vie, with its grating vocals oozing darkness, lets us imagine some obscure apocalyptic rites taking place in the shadows of its noisy loops, barely allowing a clear, distant and already spectral voice to breathe, which only loses us deeper in this labyrinth. And we knew when we listened to l'Apocalypse Individuelle, a false lull that sublimates revolt and despair into a poignant song of defeat, that we wouldn't really come out of it. As crazy and uncompromising as ever, Non Serviam are madmen of textures and emotions, sparing nothing, respecting nothing, and once again displaying a striking generosity and viscerality. Can't wait for the album!
