How many bands out there had been playing death metal for that long ? How many have helped kick-start a whole movement and are still around to tell the tale? How many have put out such universally-praised albums in the 90s like Disincarnate or Sublime Dementia and are still active these days? You do the math. But while you’re at it, LOUDBLAST and their undisputable leader Stéphane Buriez are keeping themselves busy moving forward, as ever. And their ninth full-length 'Altering Fates And Destinies', sees them reaching another level of sophistication while, at the same time, returning more than ever at the very roots of their craft.

 

It’s been almost four decades since their very first demo ''Behind The Dark Mist'. Yes, that long. And yes, 2025 will mark LOUDBLAST 40th birthday, with plenty of special events and surprises planned. But that will be next year. For the time being, LOUDBLAST have chosen instead to still live in the now and release in the meantime maybe the most surprising and daring album of their long career.

 

It all started back in December 2019: while waiting for their, then, new album 'Manifesto' to be released, Buriez moved out of Paris, where he had lived for the last fifteen years or so, to the country side, Stéphane Buriez comments : “In the middle of nowhere, in a big and confortable home, away from everybody and where I was able to build my own studio”. Little did he know that less than three months later, Covid hit. All in a sudden, the world stood still. But not Buriez. Instead of staying at nothing or pounding over his now blurry future, he set out to do what he does best: creating new music.

 

“It was a whole different experience” says Buriez about the creative process. “ With everybody spread all over the country, lead guitarist Jérôme Point-Canovas focusing for the time being on his family, drummer of thirty two years Hervé Coquerel choosing to solely focus on the live activities and bass player, and former DRAGONFORCE, Frédéric Leclercq extremely busy with KREATOR “. He ended up being de facto the album main driving force.

 

Even if he voluntary describes the material as “pretty old-school”, Buriez talks about Altering Fates And Destinies as a very personal album. “It’s a good synthesis of what we stand for in 2024. We don’t forget where we come from yet we didn’t set any boundaries and vowed to do whatever the fuck we wanted.”

 

Indeed, a track like ‘From Beyond II (The Return)’ for instance sees them dwelling back in the Lovecraft mythos but also referencing their own history by offering a sequel to a track off their 1989 debut album, 'Sensorial Treatment' which can also be read as the story of their beginning as a band. Hence also why Buriez went sonically for a very organic and natural sounding type of production, devoid of as much of triggered sounds as possible.

 

It’s quite fitting then that the title of the album itself can be read as a good description of what the band represents for Buriez who formed it when he was only seventeen years old. “You can’t dissociate my life as a human being and as a musician. It’s all connected and defines who I am. That’s what the words ‘Altering Fates and Destinies’ refer to.”

 

In a way, it doesn’t matter if this is 1985 or 2024. LOUDBLAST have still ingrained in them what makes the difference in between those who follow the trends and those for whom forging their own path and living by their own rules is like a second nature. Forward, always forward.

 

FOR FANS OF : DEATH, MORBID ANGEL, GOJIRA, BEHEMOTH, SEPULTURA, OBITUARY

 

Tracklisting :

1) From Beyond II (The Return) 3,47

2) Putrid Age of Decay 3,29

3) Crystal Skin 3,52

4) Miserable Failure 4,10

5) He Who Slumbers 5,32

6) Son Of Nameless Mist 4,42

7) Dark Allegiance 4,50

8) Inhale The Void 4,25

9) Cursed And Veiled 3,23

10) Fortress 5,33

11)They’ll Never Catch The Glint of Sunlight Again 4,12 (CD Bonus track)

12)The Path To The End 3,55 (CD Bonus track)

13) Forbidden Pleasure 2,20 (CD Bonus track)