Crystalium
De Aeternitate Commando

“War is the Mother of all things” Heraclitus

A new arm raises high the ominous banner of the Black Legion. Alongside the illustrious names of Nehemah, Mütiilation, Belketre, Pogrom, Mortifera, Vlad Tepes, Kristallnacht, Gestapo666, and Torgeist, Crystalium signs their name in letters of fire and blood with this magnificent “De Aeternitate Commando”, a work of the highest technical value that, breaking free from the typical attributes of the French extreme scene in terms of sound and production quality, offers a new interpretation of War Black Metal. To the devastating brutality of other WBM formations, Crystalium opposes a display of martial power, whose incisiveness is highlighted by the minimal yet present use of keyboards, making the compositions immediately comprehensible to the listener while maintaining the extremely high speed of the drumming. The themes addressed are also not the canonical ones: instead of the traditional anti-Christianity and usual visions of huge battles and apocalyptic massacres, Crystalium chooses an aristocratic path of hate celebration through topics like war, elitism, and philosophy.

And precisely “La Valeur De La Haine” is the title of the extraordinary opener, which opens directly, without any intro hints. From a brief prelude characterized by the granitic interplay of the guitars arises a majestic “Hail!”, shouted by what seems to be an entire legion of fighters for the Black Flame. A grandiose and heavy riff bursts in, introducing with its majestic stride a martial element that culminates with the introduction of the voice, a particular scream, hoarse and powerful. I have listened to a lot of black metal, ranging from true to hyper-technical, from raw to depressive, from the Finnish to the American school, down to the depths of the Italian and German underground, and I have found very few arrangements able to rival those of “La Valeur De La Haine” for evocativeness and expressiveness. Another diamond of the album is “Je Suis Le Christ”: setting aside cheap Satanism, the French group issues a Nietzschean critique of Christian morality through a musical structure that is initially measured and then swirling, with the intervention of the double bass drum assisted by an inhuman burst of blast beats. The voice rides the furious wave of the track, roaring in the mother tongue as in all other pieces of the group, the exaltation of individuality. The martial element is still the protagonist, rendered by the majesty of the keyboard interplays, but while it finds its maximum expression in a majestic sense in the opener, here it is instead exalted in its militaristic connotation. “Lorsque L’Elite Sera Couronée De Flammes”, the only non-"introductory" piece being under seven minutes, is another focal point of the album. The variety of the guitar structure is impressive: in 6 minutes and 18 seconds, leaving aside the chorus that occurs only twice, the same riff never repeats. This results in an exhilarating shift of the drum rhythms, which reaches its peak in the concluding slowdown, which boasts, among other things, a truly intoxicating vocal performance. To keep the technical level high, there is also “Au Nom De La Rebellion”: it seems a demon has taken over the drums, which grind superhuman tempos, spurred by the raging of a voice never so full of anger and disdain. The majestic component introduced by the keyboards is enhanced by the sudden slowdowns of the drums, sometimes accompanied by a clean voice with a declamatory tone.

This full-length confirms the group as the most aggressive European revelation of recent years, rewarding not only their great compositional originality, which is already quite rare, but also their personal re-elaboration of the themes of a genre accused by many of repetitiveness.
In summary, "De Aeternitate Commando" provides forty-three minutes of hate, martiality, and power in an extremely fast and technical Black Metal, making Crystalium one of the main banners of the French scene.
"Les polarités sont unifiées, par le sang, le feu et le fer... "