From their EPK, "founded in 2022, ARBRE-DIEU was created out of simple necessity: to render an essential and primitive violence into sound. The name consciously refers to the Mason Dieu of the Tarot of Marseille…collapse, revelation, the trace left after the shock…and functions both as a symbolic framework, and as an aesthetic promise.  While one might think of "raw black metal" to situate the style, here the label gives way to something else: a deliberately primary, rough, and brutal music that privileges ritual and cult intensity over ornamental virtuosity." The album has four songs, and "Graines de la folie" is first. It has a steady electronic beat, with what I describe as white noise in the background at first, giving way to heavy and powerful riff strikes. The harsh vocals bring another layer of madness to the song, and this is filthy and frightening music.

"Tourbillion Chaotique" is much shorter, and this time, the layers peel back like an onion. In the forefront, there is a towering riff of steel, and in the background, gears grind it forward and keep it moving. Suddenly, you have a heightened sense of things. "La vieille femme et lie soliel pale" has a deep, loud warning sound from the first note, and much of what follows is a hasty and harrowing sound. The lead breaks do provide a bit of melody in an otherwise black and void song. "Mort et Renaissance" is the final of the four songs. It presents a thick, swampy sound with audible bass notes, and you almost get a false sense of hope here. It's as if the monster lures you in with promises that ultimately are as deceitful as his blackened lair buried beneath the earth.

Within the wide genre boundaries of Black Metal these days, there is most definitely a place for "Nuit Noire" by ARBRE-DIEU. I didn't find the album as raw as advertised…instead, I found intelligent songwriting, with carefully crafted passages to keep your sense ever stimulated, and a sense of the macabre. There was also an air of mystery to the album…a feeling that there is more out there if you take the time to search.