French technical death metal outfit Architect of Seth can trace their origins back to 2006, when bandleader Pyromancer founded the band as a multi-member unit. After releasing a pair of demos in the mid-aughts and a full-length album, The Persistence of Scars, in 2013, members departed and Pyromancer was left as the only member.

The 13-year hiatus that began after the release of The Persistence of Scars is officially over, as Architect of Seth are streaming Solitude Solaire. The bones of Architect of Seth haven’t changed—the music is still based around progressive, technical death metal inspired by Death, Pestilence, Nocturnus and their ilk, but the songwriting is more layered and mature.

The best moments on Solitude Solaire come when Pyromancer allows himself to go long, like album centerpiece “Nature Morte,” which pushes his death and black metal influences into epic territory, utilizing keyboards and singer Roselys’ sung vocals alongside soaring guitar solos. At other times, it’s probing the doom side of death metal or embracing Coroner-esque speed. The same can be said of its follow up, “Paradis Sans Vie,” for which Pyromancer recruited lead guitarist Clément Bourmaud and additional vocalist Ruptur.

Elsewhere, “Karma Trance” provides a masterclass on concise, sharp songwriting and closer “Mes Mains qui se Perdent” embraces Architect of Seth’s flair for the dramatic with an emotive, melodic performance.

Describing the album to Decibel, Pyromancer said:

“Creating this album was a profound inner journey, inseparable from the imagery that accompanies its cover artwork.

“There is, first, that sensation of plunging into the void. The urge to surrender to nothingness in the face of the world’s desolation, the violence of our times and the collapse of our own certainties. Then, at the very heart of that darkness, something emerges. A landscape, a light, the vastness of the universe. A beauty so sudden, so overwhelming that it changes everything. Like a divine revelation, a moment of grace reminding us that, despite the horror, there is still something to behold, to feel, to accomplish.

“It is within this tension that the album took shape: between collapse and the will to live, between the call of the void and the urgency to create. For revelation does not necessarily bring relief from torment. It rekindles it, intensifies it, confronts us with our own contradictions and with the inner struggle we must sometimes endure to transform vertigo into movement, desolation into substance and chaos into creation.

“This album bears the scars of its time, but also the determination to set a vision against it. An emotion, a form of beauty wrested from the darkness. It is neither about denying the void nor pretending to escape it, let alone offering definitive answers. It is about moving through it, confronting what lies beyond our grasp, and giving form to the ineffable.

“From this perspective, creation becomes an act of resistance. An act of defiance in the face of collapse, a way of remaining standing when everything is falling apart. Perhaps even an attempt at salvation.

“Between the Void and Revelation, this album explores that fragile moment when beauty does not dispel the darkness, but becomes a reason to confront it.”

What are you waiting for? Solitude Solaire is streaming below (out officially on November 6 via I, Voidhanger) and the void beckons you.

The post Full Album Stream: Architect of Seth – “Solitude Solaire” appeared first on Decibel Magazine.