Since this album is a reissue from 1983, I will let the bands PR department do the talking: When French heavy metal band SORTILÈGE formed in 1981, they were following the example of their fellow countrymen TRUST. Musically however, the band from the suburbs of Paris took their musical approach one step further, forging an amalgam of true heavy metal without being influenced by punk rock, blues rock or progressive rock “Yes, absolutely,” confirms guitarist and founding member Didier Demajean today, “our influences were mainly hard rock bands, playing songs by LED ZEPPELIN, DEEP PURPLE, RAINBOW, JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, VAN HALEN and KISS”. France had a whole lot of new and interesting metal bands in the early eighties, there was a craze, and SORTILÈGE had a huge desire to express themselves. When it was time to search for a label, however, the band had to look outside their home country, and finding no French labels willing to sign them they eventually sought out Dutch label Rave-On Records which offered the best conditions for their self-titled debut EP. “The songs are raw, the sound is direct, the vocals, the riffs, the solos have anchored our musical identity in the public mind” explains Didier. The album I am reviewing today (released November 17, 2023) contains five bonus tracks not included on the original EP. Side note, because I was curious, SORTILÈGE translates to “spell or incantation”.

The influences of all the bands mentioned above (LED ZEPPELIN, DEEP PURPLE, RAINBOW, JUDAS PRIEST, IRON MAIDEN, VAN HALEN and KISS) are all very evident in the five songs from the original EP “Amazone”, “Progéniture”, “Gladiateur”, ”Sortilège”, and ”Bourreau” with the heavy duty riffs, pulsating licks and some pretty rocking guitar solos added throughout while abetted by the piercing falsetto screams of Christian “Zouille” Augustin. There just was no distinctiveness or disparity amongst any of those tracks, whether it was the vocals, the melody or the riff, other band’s songs just kept popping in my head which is great if you’re a cover band, not so great if you’re trying to create your own sound and persona, not to mention the production sounded like it was recorded in someone’s garage with the neighbors yelling “turn that shit down”. “Reine de Sabbat” (1981 Demo) sounded like JUDAS PRIEST on downers, “Esclalve de la Mort” (1981 Demo) was completely dominated by overpowering screaming vocals reminiscent of a torture chamber, and the last three tracks “The Amazone Warriors” (English Version) “Gladiator” (English Version) “Blade Killer” (English Version) despite being in English were all hard to understand or decipher by the disoriented vocal ramblings. The production on these last five songs was just as harsh.

I’m a little puzzled on what justified a reissue of such a mediocre band with not much to offer but a lot of screaming, not much more to say about SORTILÈGE other than thanks for playing, here’s your parting gift.