Once upon a time, I found a great life hack in a restaurant review, and that hack is pick the weirdest thing on the menu. Either the restaurant can deliver and you have picked something truly special, or they can’t and you’ve got a good story out of it. As such, when I came across Contemplation and the promise of death/doom metal mixed with dub, I was instantly sold on trying Au Bord Du Précipice.
The best way to describe how that mix feels is to steal from Contemplation‘s album title. Au Bord Du Précipice really does feel like you’re stood somewhere very high and surrounded by empty air. The transitions from rumbling deathdoom to the lingering, chilled out notes of the dub and violin takes you back and forth between crushing panic and pensive calm, between a sense that you might fall and admiring the beauty of the view. Those combined moods build and build through Au Bord Du Précipice until penultimate track “Dust to Dust” hits like an out of control train. When I’m really in the mood for Contemplation, something unnerving and out of body happens to me when I listen to that song with its vast neo-noir soundscapes punctuated by staccato bursts of violence and melody, like I’m in caught one final moment where life rushes past my eyes. I almost resent the existence of closer “Eternal Sleep” taking me out of that headspace, but I know I need it to bring me back off of Contemplation‘s ledge.
I don’t expect many people to react that strongly to Au Bord Du Précipice but I know a lot of people are going to love it. Not only is it near unique and a damn fine listen, but it is a hugely emotional, cathartic experience. It is also no gimmick. Contemplation‘s mastermind (and everything else) Matthieu Ducheine has blended the disparate elements into one cohesive atmosphere that feels completely natural. Deathdoom with dub may sound like the weirdest thing on the menu, but listening to it says its anything but. In short, Au Bord Du Précipice is best described in one word — special.
