Continuing my journey to discover new music by female artists, I did not expect to end up so quickly in the world of post-metal. Finding female artists in the metal realm is a difficult endeavor, especially when one considers that metal acts are almost always bands with aggressive names that aren’t feminine in any way. My latest search through new metal releases led me to discover albums by bands with obviously metal names like Drown in Sulfur, Abhoria, and Splitknuckle. None of these bands have female members, at least as far as I can tell. Hidden among them, with a name just as aggressive, was the new album Heal by French post-metal band No Terror In The Bang. I had never heard of them and I assumed, as I find with most new metal, that they would either sound like bad hard rock or average death metal. What a surprise when the first track started off with a piano run followed by heavy riffage and a powerful female vocalist. Within a minute, the crushing riffage faded into a wonderful groove featuring beautiful vocals by singer Sofia Bortoluzzi. By the time Bortoluzzi starting dropping cookie monster vocals at the 2-minute mark, I was hooked. The ten tracks lead the listener through prog-metal, death metal, piano interludes, digital drum effects, spoken word segments, blast beats, infectious grooves, and vocals that range from in-your-face scream vox to gorgeously melodic pop vox. This is 21st century post-metal at its best.
Heal by No Terror In The Bang
Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way. No Terror In The Bang have been around for about 4 years. They are from Rouen, France and Heal is their second full length album. Vocalist Bortoluzzi is joined by Alexis Damien (drums/composition), Etienne Cochin (guitar), Clement Bernard (guitar), Brice Bouchard (bass), and Romain Greffe (keyboards). They classify themselves as Cinematic Progressive Metal, but I think they are best described as Post-Metal. The album has 10 songs and runs for 45 minutes. The cover displays artistically rendered, superimposed torsos. The band name comes from a well-known Alfred Hitchcock quote that there is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.
The album starts out with “Hostile,” a song that moves from simple piano to explosive riffage to quiet interludes and back again. Bortoluzzi’s vocals show their full range throughout. This is post-metal perfection. It only gets better from there as “Retch” is a standout track that bursts out of the first songs quiet ending with a riff in an odd time signature that slides into a blend of all that the band has to offer. The drums crush, the guitars grind, the keyboards soar, and then it all drops into a soft spoken-word section over a piano line. Very powerful. The album settles in from there with a nice collection of post-metal tunes that present the group’s full range. The first half of “Monster” provide an atmospheric 2.5-minute intro of piano, synths, and vocals before settling into an aggressive prog-metal section. “Lulled By The Waves” follows the same formula, but replaces the atmospheric intro with a modern pop songwriter sound. “Palindrome” drops the metal altogether and presents a 3-minute minimalistic spoken-word over loops and piano. By the time the albums standout track “OD” kicks in at Track 7, the band has already presented a full menu of sounds and textures. “OD” pulls it all together with the collection’s catchiest chorus and another display of Bortoluzzi’s vocal range. Title track “Heal” starts with Bortoluzzi’s most beautiful vocal track before the prog-metal kicks in, and then the final tracks complete the record with two tracks that present the band’s trademark sound.
It is doubtful that anyone other than a metal fan is going to discover and enjoy this album, but there is certainly more here than standard metal. Still, each year brings more music of this type into existence, and music lovers around the world continue to migrate toward this sound. While it hasn’t caught on in the U.S. as much as it has in Europe, there is no denying that bands like No Terror In The Bang are presenting a style of music that is not going to go away any time soon.
As always, thanks for listening, and reading!
To learn more about No Terror In The Bang, check out their official website or visit their Instagram page.
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