Post-metal heavyweights Briqueville release new album, IIII

Belgian doom-drone collective B R I Q U E V I L L E have released their fourth full-length release, ‘IIII’, via Berlin’s Pelagic Records.

Founded in fittingly mysterious and macabre circumstances from an eclectic collision of different local scenes; B R I Q U E V I L L E anonymised themselves in order to champion their singular, sinister sound. ‘AKTE XVII’, however, suggests that the band may be beginning to lift the veil.

Drenched in B R I Q U E V I L L E’s signature brew of restless repetitive grooves, growling distortion and unsettling found sounds; the single dives headlong into the deeper, richer sonic palette teased on 2020’s album, ‘Quelle’. The group’s all-consuming heaviness is laced with subtle, haunting melodies and an eerie vocal presence that offers the briefest glimpse of warmth and respite amongst the icy, grinding despair.

Drawing from members of their electro and metal scenes, B R I Q U E V I L L E first assembled with the ambition of improvising around a single, droned note. Having latched onto something raw and powerful, the band suddenly found themselves confronted by a stranger telling tales of a hatred years in the making. Floored by such a fateful meeting, B R I Q U E V I L L E have anonymised themselves ever since; unifying the collective as one sound, a singular faceless force hellbent on converting audiences around the world.

With ‘IIII’ however, B R I Q U E V I L L E are beginning to lift the veil. Alongside the aural despair that the band have been handcrafting ever since their eponymous debut full-length in 2014, ‘IIII’ is imbued with an intriguing duplicity. Within the mournful melancholy and grinding, icy orchestration is the faintest glimmer of hope as the collective explores the idea of creativity free from the confinement of morals, expectations and time. ‘IIII’ sees subtle, tonal shifts and brief periods of warmth and richness now intersperse the band’s fearsome outbursts of unrivalled heaviness in a new, intoxicating transformation of their formidable sound.

Do be careful though, B R I Q U E V I L L E may have stepped out of the shadows, but they can easily drag us back in with them...

IIII is out now.