Album Review: Toro by Ddent

Paris post-metal band Ddent release their new album Toro on 23^rd March via Chien Noir. It’s a beast of an album, devastatingly heavy yet full of immediate atmospherics you fall in love right from the start as the music connects with you in a primal and intuitive way.

As with their stunning debut album آكتئاب this is a concept album. Here’s the premise, while آكتئاب narrated the introspective journey of a melancholic poet, this is the second chapter, with the search of truth through creation as a common thread. The song’s titles all refer to Federico Garcia Lorca’s volume of poetry “Llanto”, as well as the underlying concept of “duende” – the creative force that possesses the artist and against which he is forced to battle in order to give life to his art. The album’s main character is on a quest to find truth, in a creativity-free world. Nevertheless, without creation, truth can’t be, without creation, spiritual death is inevitable.

Quite the build-up. Luckily, Toro lives up to the billing and exceeds all expectations. At 7 tracks clocking in at over an hour, it isn’t an album for the casual listener. It’s a beast in length as well as in substance. The density of the riffs are matched by it longevity and long journey your transported on. There’s not to even hint at any track outstaying its welcome, even tracks like ‘Dans La Roseraie’, ‘Torse de Marbre’ and ‘Noir Taureau De Douler’ that break the ten-minute mark feel like they’ve been condensed and are of the very highest quality.

Torro does what any excellent post-metal or post-rock album should do and feels like being experienced as one moving, fluid piece of music is the best course of action. Dipping into one particular track would change your experience and with it you wouldn’t get the same gravitas. Take ‘Torse de Marbre’ as an example, sure alone it’s a stunning track but listen to alongside the rest and the swooping crescendos and explorative and heavy riffs take on a different life form. So much more rewarding.

A stunning listen

AD Rating 8/10