Jours Pâles, a project of Spellbound (vocalist – Aorlhac) was born from the ashes of Asphodèle’s first and only album, released in 2019 with Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions. Spellbound and Audrey Sylvain (Malenuit) were accompanied by Christian Larsson (Ex Apati, ex Shining, Gloson) Stefan Bayle and Sébastien Papot (Guitare et batterie, Au champ des morts).
After the band’s dissolution the very same year, Spellbound keeps the adventure going, composing with a desire for continuity as much as for fracture. This step forward comes with a will to express his music through the same states of mind and thick dysthymic hazes, while freeing himself from the shackles of the past, abandoning rock moods for a stylistic evolution towards a metal that remains melancholic, but with more galloping and aggressive hints.
Éclosion, the first album of this new offspring, aims to be the personal assessment of a world that’s more than ever considered as dislocated and torn apart, but above all a perpetual search for hope and light, through the texts as much as the visual aspect.
Far from flying solo, Spellbound surrounds himself with James Sloan on guitars (Uada, Gravelight) and Christian Larsson. The backbone is completed by several guests: Graf from Psychonaut 4 and Lilas Ondine Dupont (silhouette, backing vocals) as well as Sylvain Bégot (Monolithe) and Lonn (Aorlhac) on solo guitars.
Safe from the world, waiting for the ultimate blooming, was born Jours Pâles…
Jours Pâles came back in 2022, still under LADLO’s banner, with a second album named “Tensions”. Tensions is a personal representation of a dysthymic modern world, perceived as cold, mechanical, disillusioned, where social media and political scarecrows rule a Mephistophelean society that is totally lacking sense and landmarks. This general theme is pictured on Niklas Sundin’s artwork (founding member of Dark Tranquillity, Laethora...). Musically-speaking, the result is a more aggressive piece but with a vision that tends to distort clichés through an egotistical composition which mixes once again the genres. Still with Spellbound in command (composition, vocals, lyrics), the line-up now comprises musicians such as Alex G. on bass (Aorlhac, Altaïr, Ritual Knives) Alexis S. on guitars, Ben L. on drums (B-Blast records) and the traditional role of guest is this time entrusted to Natalie Koskinen (from the doom metal cults of Shape of Despair).
