Creating a version of black metal determined to go back underground, Ascète combine influences from melodic black metal, epic black metal, and the simple but energetic melodies of Oi, using song structures at the edge of randomness to develop strongly anthemic themes.
Like Infamous and Ildjarn, this band work within recursive melodies that gain power from the contrast presented by riffs which move melody in contrary directions, producing a sense of less conflict than the rise and fall of historical forces in balance, a naturalistic emergence of clarity from inequality.
Songs start with the major theme, but then vary it with slight dissonance and key changes as well as the introduction of seemingly unrelated themes, with the fusion of the two appearing only through continued interplay and gradual prominence of related elements.
More spirited than all but a few recent entries in the review queue, Calamites & les Calamités shows what happens when someone throws out the rule book in order to make music that expresses something, even if it reflects an unstable perch between order and chaos.