Monday, November 30, 2020

Puissance - "Grace of God" [2007]

Artist: Puissance
Title: Grace of God
Genre: Martial Industrial, Neoclassical
Country: Sweden
Release date: 2007

Track List: 

  1. Grace Of God
  2. Stance
  3. Walls Of Freedom
  4. Warzone
  5. In Death
  6. Conspiracy
  7. Brittle
  8. Loreto

Puissance are unique in the sense of being a martial industrial project that's also widely considered to be a part of the black metal scene, despite not being metal at all. Not surprising, because Fredrik Söderlund was involved in several black metal bands during the 90s, and brought a lot of typical black metal aesthetics and lyrical themes into Puissance. "Grace of God" is their last full-length album, and the most accessible to an average listener, compared to their earlier releases. That wasn't met well by the more "trve" elements in their fanbase, and that's probably the reason why Puissance was mostly put to rest after 2007, with Henry Möller focusing on his other project Arditi.

As for me, "Grace of God" is the bast album in their discography, and one of the best in the whole martial industrial genre, comparable to "Muse in Arms" by Triarii (my another favourite). Puissance are famous for the "apocalyptic" atmosphere of their music, and it's very much present on "Grace of God" as well. It also doesn't suffer from the usual problems of martial industrial such as overuse of samples. My personal favourites are the title track, the ballad-like "In Death" (the lyrics are remarkable as well), "Walls of Freedom", and "Brittle".

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