In the past year there have been some very good French releases; the latest albums of Anorexia Nervosa, Yyrkoon and Arkhon Infaustus come to mind when I think of some good, French metal releases in 2004. The Mourning Sign of Distress can be put in that list. It’s not as brutal as the aforementioned albums, but it is heavy in its own way.

Distress plays a mix between doom and death metal and sometimes it reminds a bit of My Dying Bride. Not vocal wise nor speed wise (so to speak) but it’s the atmosphere that does the trick. Sometimes I recognize a bit of Opeth too.

Distress was unknown to me, but after a bit of research I found out that the band comes from France and that they were founded in 1996. After a demo, Philippe Miralles and Laurent Haas, the two founding member of Distress, started recording their debut album Close To Heaven.

After completing the line up for the band, Distress started to work on The Mourning Sign, which resulted in a great doom/death album in my opinion. Modesty is combined with a certain brutality. This is a great album to end this cold December with!