Idols For Dinner – ‘Tenants Of A Declining World’

France’s Idols For Dinner actually trace their roots back more than half a decade, forming as Corpse Division back in 2007 but changing their name a few years later as they felt their original monicker did not reflect the style of music they play:   “it sounded like a brutal death metal band and this is not the music that we play”, as vocalist Cristofer Rousseau explained in a recent interview with PM.

Tackling a wide variety of lyrical issues, from Plato (‘Legally Instituted Murder’) to nervous breakdowns (‘Perpetual Decline’), the anti-social nature of ‘social media’ (‘Prosthetic Memories’) to, erm, James Bond (‘Mask Of Sorrow’), ‘Tenants…’ is a hard-hitting highly impressive debut, which is not afraid to stray outside the traditional confines and concepts of the deathcore genre – witness the funky bass fills and runs on ‘Legally Instituted Murder’, for example.

The outstanding performance, for me, is that of drummer Othman Belhadj, who uses the right mix of ferocity and melody, not wasting time on needless fills but concentrating of maintaining the intensity needed to drive the brutality of the tracks:  check out ‘Perpetual Decline’ for an example of this, or ‘Scarlet’, on which he actually holds back as much as he blasts the beats.

‘Scarlet’ is also the most intense and violent track on the album, visceral and acidic in all aspects of its delivery, especially on Rousseau’s acerbic vocal and the spitting, snarling main guitar riff.

The album’s surprise package is the acoustic instrumental, ‘We The Lost Traveller’, which sits as something of an anomaly – albeit a very welcome one – amidst all the brutality around it.  It is sad, beautifully haunting and yet retains the overall apocalyptic feel of the rest of the album… if not more so due to its pathos.  It’s a very pleasant surprise to hear DC bands showing that they are musically proficient.

A surprisingly good and rewariding album from a band wafting a refreshing breath of clean air into what is, by and large, a staid and generally boring genre.

[8.5/10]

Track list:

1. I Sell You The World
2. Legally Instituted Murder
3. Perpetual Decline
4. Scarlet
5. Prosthetic Memories
6. We The Lost Traveller
7. Mask Of Sorrow
8. District Of Fear

‘Tenants Of A Dying World’ is released on January 29^th.

Read our interview with Cristofer Rousseau at http://planetmosh.com/interview-with-idols-for-dinner/

Find out more at www.facebook.com/IdolsForDinner