“Que Du Noir” by Slow Crush

I could’ve sworn that I’d written something about Slow Crush over the years. Like, say, a review of their excellent debut album, 2018’s Aurora, which blends an MBV-esque wall of noise with some nice, grungy crunch. But a search of the Opus archives revealed nada for the Belgian band, so allow me to address that oversight right now.

Released earlier this year, Slow Crush’s “Que Du Noir” single finds Isa Holliday and her bandmates refining their heavy shoegaze sound to be slower, more dramatic, and dare I say gothier? The shadowy guitars, measured drumming, and tolling bells are certainly apropos for lyrics like “Without you/Without hope/Without you, the soul dies.” And those lyrics grow even more pained and angsty thanks to Holliday’s breathy voice — and being sung in French, of course.

Slow Crush’s most recent album, Thirst, was released last year by Nashville’s Pure Noise Records.