France is, to me, a country that churns out extremely interesting extreme metal bands and albums at a steady clip. The brightest examples tend to be a compliment of outrageous ideas and high technical skill, thus hitting my personal preference square in the raw nerve of it. Véhémence's 2022 album "Ordalies" lands in that category. Variously dubbed as "medieval black metal", "Ordalies" is at times a blistering and at others reverent tapestry of tight, modern black metal. Not quite folk, the album still packs enough slower melodic passages and soaring riffs to accompany its stories of blacksmithing and knights in shining armor.
