TENTATION
“Le Berceau Des Dieux”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Tentation are a heavy metal band from France formed in 2012 releasing their self titled six song mini album in 2015. The bands first full length album ‘Le Berceau Des Dieux’ was released in 2021…

…and is a glorious forty minute gallop of traditional heavy metal – the kinda gallop legends Iron Maiden made famous throughout the eighties. Sung entirely in French, ‘Le Berceau Des Dieux’ (translated as ‘The Cradle Of The Gods’), boasts ten head bangingly addictive songs, each one guaranteed to keep the mosh pits busy! ‘L’Exode’ gives the album life in a blaze of traditional sounding metal – and once again reinforces the sentiment that no matter what language heavy metal is sung in, metal music is a universal language that everyone understands. The electric pace is pulse racing, adrenaline flowing, and heart pumping…

…which goes for pretty much the entire album too! ‘Le Couvent’ picks up the pace, blazing a fiery trail across the land. Every metal head everywhere will find their head banging becomes much more vigorous, as ‘Le Couvent’ stretches its legs to become a rampant and raucous belter. And by stark contrast, ‘La Chute Des Titans’ crashes in with a heavy anthemic foot stomp, before resuming the electric pace the album began with. ‘La Chute Des Titans’ also features a guitar sound so synonymous with the iconic NWOBHM evolution. Traditional metallists are gonna love this. ‘Interlude’ is a one and a half minute, err, interlude with a serene guitar, twanging beautifully…

…leading us straight into ‘Le Taureau D’Airain’, another pulsating traditional metal gallop. The influence of the eighties metal scene has been phenomenal on these French metallers, the classic sound of traditional metal featuring heavily in every song on offer. With the opening guitar riff resembling shock rocker Alice Cooper’s ‘School’s Out’, ‘Conquerants’ quickly becomes a fast and furious metal romp, with an exquisitely melodious chorus break. The four piece band are definitely keeping the pedal to the metal with their new album – the head bang ability is extremely high, and extremely involuntary…

…until all pace and pomp suddenly stop! And intriguingly, ‘Baldr’ finds us thrown headlong into ballad country! On a metal album! Really! Now regular readers will know my stance here – ballads are for the rock bands, not the metal ones. There are exceptions however, bands such as Iron Maiden and Rage can pull this feat off without batting an eyelid – and to be fair, ‘Baldr’ does get heavier the longer it runs. So I think I’ll give the band a pass on this one. And the classic NWOBHM guitar sound and riffage immediately strikes back with a vengeance – ‘Blanche’ a scorching romp, reminding me of bands such as Angel Witch and Raven, two of the bands that first got me into heavy metal during the early eighties…

…with the iconic traditional heavy metal sound. And here I am forty years later still loving it! ‘L’Enfant De Gosthal’ is a menacing two minute crescendo that leads to the final song on the album, which, although still sung in French, has an English title – ‘Heavy Metal’, and features guest vocalists Patrice Le Clavez (Titan), Iron Jeremy (Iron Slaught), and Jey Deflagrator (Hexecutor). Very much a group effort, ‘Heavy Metal’ is heavy, gutsy, and ballsy. Think a blend of Venom, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest…with a rousing chant style chorus to boot.

Overall, a bombastic blast of traditional heavy metal, ‘Le Berceau Des Dieux’ is head bangingly infectious, and one hundred percent addictive.

TRACKLIST

L’Exode
Le Couvent
La Chute Des Titans
Interlude
Le Taureau D’Airain
Conquerants
Baldr
Blanche
L’Enfant De Gosthal
Heavy Metal

https://tentationfrance.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/tentationfrance

This review is the property of Iron Mathew and Metal Gods TV. It is strictly prohibited to copy any part of this review, unless you have both of the parties’ permission, or are the band/record label/PR company in question. Failure to adhere to these instructions will be considered as Plagiarism and you will be reported to the appropriate authorities

---