One of the groups affiliated with the obscure Les Ap�tres De l'Ignominie circle of black metal/black doom bands, Darvulia are another strange French black metal outfit that I've been into for awhile, with several murky, psychedelic albums on the Battleskrs label. The Belladone tape is a newer release, actually a re-issue of a 7" that came out back in 2003 that's pretty short but completely ripping. With a deliberately muddy recording that suggests that the members of Darvulia recorded these songs underneath a sewer grate somewhere in Toulouse. The three songs featured on this Ep are more of the murky, deformed black metal that this band is known for, with twisted, angular riffs that are pretty reminiscent of Deathspell Omega, but they also incorporate other sounds that make this more peculiar like weirdly placed bits of low-fi graveyard ambience and odd rhythmic parts. The first track is a downright bizarre piece for just vocals and guitar that lets loose with some warped LLN-esque ambience, but then the second song "Sorcieres" comes in with a rush of blazing low-fi hate, killer malevolent riffs swarming around the choked, snarling vocals of frontman Kobal (also a member of Sektarism and Malhkebre) and the shambling drumming. This is much rawer than a lot of the French BM that I've been listening to, with an ugly sickly feel with slower lurching riffage that sort of resembles some kind of wretched blackened noise-rock. Lastly, the third track is a faster, speedy blast of dissonance and murky riffing that slips into a killer rocking riff later on, with a level of punk urgency to this one that finished the Ep in a ferocious snarling blast of fuzz.

Released in a limited edition of one hundred copies.