So it’s no new news! The new Hante. album FIERCE is out. After Kaelan Mikla dished out a glancing, unexpected blow late in 2018 and stole the show with Nott Eftir Nott; what will the French mastermind behind this new wave of Synth/Dark/Wave band have in store for us in 2019?
Right of the bat! FIERCE delivers the feeling of the project getting its own personal touch. Its always been a critique of mine that Hante. although amazing was a little too similar to Helene De Thoury's previous project Minuit Machine... but its a trend that began to change since Hante.'s previous album Between Hope & Danger, but now in FIERCE you can really notice that departure, saying THIS IS HANTE. without feeling completely strange and unusual.
Another difference we will notice in Fierce is Helene's exploring beyond what we are used to listen from her and this is evidenced straight up in the song Wild Animal which she has featured with a video just before the album's release. Wild Animal and RESPECT feature a slight synthpop feel in beats without letting of the melancholic darkness in her music.
Another element to praise in in FIERCE is the fact that Helene more creative and variant with her beats something that in the past normally remained constant and repetitive in her music, well now FIERCE delivers much more elaboratly structured melodies and drums for a richer and fuller experience.
Also you will notice collaborations, 4 tracks feature other artists, more than ever before... Normally in the past it was common to see Hante. featured somewhere else or remixing another artist, in FIERCE now we have other artists molding themselves to Helene's beautiful and drowning synth melodies and they fit perfectly, it doesn't feel forced at all and this is to be praised on the album's production value.
I don't necessarily like to talk about specific tracks as I'm the type of critic that likes to see albums as a whole in one piece, like if you were reading a book and let you the listener to listen to each song and reach your own conclusions but on a personal opinion Tomorrow is a New Day, Wild Animal, Serre-Moi Encore, Nobody is Watching, Waiting For a Hurricane (Which brings that classic Hante. formula from old) and Respect are the Highlights of this amazing album.
You can reach to your own conclusions but one thing we can agree is that this is Hante. at her fiercest and best yet! She managed to improve on every element from any previous releases and has delivered a masterpiece of an album to start the year 2019 with a bang! Will this be the best Darkwave album of 2019? Remains to be seen since its early in the year and the competition is also Fierce from many bands that Hante's music has influenced specially from the Icelandic trio I mentioned at the beginning of this review.
Oh and please don't ask me if I recommend this album... you know my answer to that... Why are you still here reading? You should have bought FIERCE 3 months ago knowing that Helene De Thoury wasn't going to go silent into the night and she was gonna deliver a quality experience as we have come to expect from her.
Buy FIERCE here.
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