VIA DOLORIS – Guerre et Paix

RELEASE YEAR: 2026
BAND URL: https://viadoloris.bandcamp.com/album/guerre-et-paix

Conceived, meticulously crafted, and perfectly nursed in solitude, this majestic and heartfelt opus by Via Doloris, which is the brainchild of former Satyricon live guitarist Gildas Le Pape, is a most welcome surprise.

Across seven inspired compositions and forty-eight thrilling minutes, Le Pape and renowned drummer Frost (1349, Satyricon) guide us through a unique-sounding musical landscape in which contrasts and dichotomies abound and wrestle with each other, resulting in a muscular, moving, and highly dynamic album filled with tension and release. Harmony and beauty collide with dissonance and a sense of rupture, and at the heart of it all is a vigorous and genuine sense of longing that holds it all together. The organic essence and natural flow of the tracks imbue the record with a very human feel, and by combining traditional black metal elements and expansive, melodic parts to masterful effect, Via Doloris have spawned a fabulous debut LP that delivers on atmosphere, grandeur, and introspection all the while possessing a strong emotional pull. A good point of reference may in fact be the more mesmerizing, reflective, and musically adventurous pieces that are to be found on the self-titled Satyricon record from 2013, namely “The Infinity of Time and Space” and “Our World, It Rumbles Tonight.” Guerre et Paix feels deeply personal and I absolutely love that about it.