Hasard is a project that emerged as an offshoot of the one-man band Les Chants Du Hasard. Whereas that band blends the worlds of opera and theater with atmospheric black metal, Hasard turns the musical formula on its head: pitch-black, extremely dissonant black metal serves as a lush and ornate foundation for dark, orchestral melodies, evoking an atmosphere steeped in melancholy, gloom, and resignation. In 2023, the fascinating, monstrous debut Malivore was released. Two years on, the avant-garde solo project from Paris returns with an even bleaker and more morbid—thus even more provocative and compelling?—follow-up: Abgnose.
Hasard (yes, the band is spelled with an s, while the artist uses a z) has a clear purpose with this second album: “Abgnose is a testament to the greater force that governs our lives … pure chance. We spend a short amount of time as a small point on an equally small planet lost somewhere in the universe and we die, only for our futile achievements to be forgotten as fast as we’re replaced. Abgnose stands for removing the idea of the divine, thus leaving only the despair of having to live and not be rewarded for our actions in this world.”
On Abgnose, Hasard paints his eccentric, venomous, and compact black metal with agonizing, unhinged guitar lines, icy riffs, churning energy, and devastating, hammering drums. Layered over this come bestial growls, maniacal shrieks, and despairing wails, cloaking everything in a suffocating, disquieting, jet-black ambience. Complex structures, twisted harmonies, sinister melodies, dizzying shifts, and biting dissonance culminate in claustrophobic passages enriched with shadowy orchestral symphonies. All of this creates a monstrous, post-apocalyptic soundscape. Words like delicate, fragile, or subtle simply do not exist in Hasard’s vocabulary—here, possession, ruthlessness, and unrelenting harshness reign supreme.
Classical symphonic elements rarely dominate the mix overtly, but their influence on the overall sound is unmistakable—and thank goodness, because it’s precisely what makes this music so fascinating. Strings, brass, and orchestral percussion add layers of drama, atmosphere, and complexity to the tracks. They make compositions such as Oniritisme and Antienne Estrale more dynamic, grandiose, epic, and emotionally gripping—almost as though you’re being drawn into a cinematic narrative. It’s also the subtly placed details that lend the music an even darker and more mysterious edge. The seemingly random strikes on the piano keys or the dramatic horns in Senestral, the ominous strings and brass halfway through Negascendance, the terrifying intro and the threatening timpani in Antienne Estrale—each of these elements imbues the music not only with magnificent beauty, but also with a deeply haunting, enigmatic, and desolate dimension. A masterclass in unease.
It should come as no surprise, then, that disharmonic compositions like opener Oniritisme, Senestral, and Antienne Estrale come across as grim, unsettling, and oppressive. One might expect such auditory violence to induce sheer alienation or even overwhelming indifference, as it might seem like a wall of excessive noise. Yet Abgnose does the opposite—it draws you in. These five sonic nightmares unfold in sprawling compositions averaging nearly nine minutes in length, transforming into overwhelming, immersive, searing experiences. They evoke a sense of anxiety, suffocation, and strangeness—but the hypnotic grandeur is simply inescapable.
Do you enjoy hearing something truly different? Something that unashamedly dares to be unusual? Do you shy away from nothing, even when faced with terrifying, ominous, and harrowing tracks brimming with dread? Even knowing that unbounded frustration, crushing despair, and catastrophic doubt await you? Do you embrace sinister, blackened, spine-chilling dissonance? Do you revel in blood-curdling, menacing, and malevolent compositions? If you’re a fan of bands like Akhlys, Aoratos, Bestia Arcana, Blut Aus Nord, or Decoherence, then Abgnose by Hasard is a true gem for you—not a crystal-clear, radiant jewel glittering in the light, but one of inky blackness, shrouded in mystery, concealing its light and colour within. Let me guess… your preference was always for the dark one anyway?
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