Presented in tragic scenery, a host of medieval vignettes narrated with inspiration taken from classic paintings and true life heroines alike Lyon, France-based traditional heavy metal quintet Meurtrières return at an antique gallop, plodding and shouting their way through this energetic and dramatically stated debut full-length album. Though facing down the cannon barrel of a few imposing changes, a new vocalist among them, these adaptive classicists pull together a viably inspired second introduction which is sure to check all of the boxes for the on-the-ball heavy metal underground today. ‘Ronde de Nui‘ is not the perfect debut LP yet for all of its rough edges the potential of their early work is not at all squandered within and instead built upon for a memorable grip of traditional heavy metal songs which feel potently regional in their specificity by default.

Meurtrières describe their earliest beginnings (circa 2018) as a trio featuring members of Saint Marie des Loups and Père Lachaise with a traditional heavy metal ideal in mind, eventually expanding to a full quintet in the space of a year. Sporting heavy rock energy in hand and punkish experience guiding them down a self-driven path their work came together quickly, was recorded in just a few days, and likely benefitted from being somewhat spur of the moment, adaptive and concentrated with plenty of inspired rhythmic ideas crammed into their well-received self-titled debut mLP (‘Meurtrières‘, 2020). Street rocking, ‘epic’ in diction, and lead by original vocalist Fleur‘s mild vibrato the early Iron Maiden comparisons were perhaps a bit obvious from reviewers at the time, the band were clearly much more eclectic than that, yet it’d been a substantial debut that’d eventually pulled in a fair deal of hype. No doubt they’d been in-demand enough to continue and in most ways ‘Ronde de Nuit’ is a somewhat expected outcome in an even more straightforward style with some of the dramatism of mid-80’s French heavy metal and perhaps less of the warmer shade of Lizzy/Ashbury in their dual guitar stride than before.

In the interim beyond 2020 the band were at work on ‘Ronde de Nuit‘ during the pandemic but soon found original vocalist Fleur was ready to leave. While some may downplay the impact of this in the grand scheme of things it did inevitably change the outcome of Meurtrières debut LP since the performers involved are not so easily/quickly interchangeable despite how quickly they were able to adapt. Though this debut is directly related to what they’d dreamed-up on their first recording it is inevitably changed by the presence of a new vocalist. To state the obvious, new vocalist Fiona is simply a different voice and arguably a less tuneful singer (“Aucun Homme, Aucun Dogme, Aucune Croix” is especially flat) with a more blunt and straight-forward voice delivered without the prior dynamic in mind. This likewise includes a different lyrical approach (still en Français, though) which includes some of the ‘medieval heroine’ theme developed by the previous vocalist, now additionally touching upon the moody scenery of darker paintings from romanticist and baroque artists for inspiration. For the more discerning ear this change will serve an overall different tonal experience and this may or may not be a good thing depending on your expectations. My only actual complaint is that the vocals are set too prominently in the mix and occasionally hit adrift of the impact of the rhythm.

The biggest boon felt in this return to the world of Meurtrières is a sound which is now arguably closer to the ‘heavy rocking traditional heavy metal’ goal of the band now reading less complicated in terms of songcraft with a more urgent pacing delivered, as a whole these are not complex piece but the density of movements has risen because of the faster paced thread overall. Title track, “Ronde de Nuit“, probably best illustrates the band at thier best, locked into a fairly straight forward song with a crispier speed metal inflected main riff that has a minor hook going for it but little flair bubbles up out of the ordinary. While ‘Ronde de Nuit‘ does feel surprisingly dry in some respects this doesn’t stop the mid-point of the album soon building up some viable momentum with the punkish turns taken in the first half of “Alma Mater” and striding through the epic heavy circa ’79 walk-up of “Chevaleresses du Chaos” wherein I’d suggest these pieces make up for the shaky start of the album with notable rhythm guitar work.

Though I’d been riding high off Meurtrières first release as I’d headed into this introductory full-length I’d eventually come to appreciate the off-the-cuff spirit of their work on both releases, though I cannot necessarily concede that ‘Ronde de Nuit‘ realized the potential the band’d first set forth it certainly wasn’t a bad time to hang out with. The very real sensation of a distinctly French heavy metal band charging through a set of inspired, anthemic pieces with an exquisitely early 80’s spiritus in mind still ends up an intoxicating spin. Despite growing pains being felt within the action of this record it doesn’t scuff the experience for my own taste, though I did ultimately walk away from my time with this album feeling like the vocals held this record back from a breakthrough take, or, a truly defining moment just yet. This leaves the experience feeling less like an escalation for the band so much as it offers a point of reset, a different feeling which is nearly just as charming as before. A moderately high recommendation.

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