Sotherion – Vermine

With the 2022 released two-track ‘Schwarmgeist’-demo we already had a bit of a sneak peak into what we could expect from Sotherion, a Paris, France based one-man band founded by BST. A seasoned veteran from the French Extreme Metal scene. In the review for ‘Schwarmgeist’ I already mentioned that quite a lot from his rather extensive resume resonated in what he presents us with Sotherion. ‘Schwarmgeist’ can best be described as thoroughly French sounding Black Metal affair and so is ‘Vermine’, Sotherion’s debut album, also released through W.T.C. Productions.

A French Black Metal affair, yes. Lots of grainy and contrarian and hypnotising riffs and thunderous vocals, all wrapped up in an overall unsettling sound. Comparing these nine new tracks, together clocking just over 40 minutes, to ‘Schwarmgeist’ it is clear that BST has surrendered nothing to its unforgiving style, it all sounds as discomforting and suffocating as ever. The heavily textured and grainy guitars are still there and do benefit of an even darker and more Death Metal-fuelled sound, resulting in a more brutal and savage character of the music as a whole.

Throughout the entirety of the album, BST’s experience in bands like Antaeus and especially Aosoth shines through. Take the main riffs from a song like ‘La Mort Pour Compagnon’ for instance, which has a very strong Darkthrone vibe (‘In The Shadow Of The Horns’) to it, in the sense of a similar guitar tone but slowly progresses to an evident Aosoth-ridden hypnotising sort of brutality. This quite typifies the album, ‘Vermine’ pretty much sounds like a mixture of both the second wave of French Black Metal as well as the regressiveness of the genre defining classic second Darkthrone record.

It is all held together by that same rough and sandpaper-like production that also characterised ‘Schwarmgeist’ and gives Sotherion a fairly recognisable sound. This still doesn’t make Sotherion easy-listening, but rather fodder for the seasoned fan of the more raucous kind of Black Metal. And although ‘Vermine’ can be just as easily put away under “Black Metal”, because the chaotic nature and the Death Metal-edge of the music, fans of Bestial Black Metal will also be delighted with this.