Review: Tableau Mort – Veil of Stigma. Book I: Mark of Delusion

Review by Obsidian Pope

Tableau Mort – Veil of Stigma. Book I: Mark of Delusion

Record Label: Loud Rage Music

Year: 2019

Rating: 8/10

Rising as ashes from the flames of the UK Black Metal scene in 2017, London’s ‘Tableau Mort’ were blasphemously birthed unto this terrestrial plane. Thematically driven by Romanian Orthodoxy and sonically propelled by ravenous rage, Tableau Mort immediately made their looming presence felt.

After releasing singles for ‘Impending Corruption’ in 2018 and ‘Fall of Man” in 2019, the destructive forces conjured coalesced into their first full length, aptly entitled ‘Veil of Stigma. Book I: Mark of Delusion’.

A mouthful of melancholic renderings, this full length lives up to its name, slashing its way through orthodox theology, occultism and societal psychosis, ‘Book I’ is a cumulative story marking centuries of deceit reaching its pinnacle.

Tracks such as their first two singles, as they are again the first 2 tracks of this record, truly lend insight as to the diversity of Tableau Mort’s stylings. Here they give a fresh spin on melody within the structure of both Black and Death Metal while remaining truthful to both genres’ origins. Darkness rises and falls in an unabridged barrage of beastliness and brutality.

Tableau Mort

The album then follows with what can only be described as an ode to the sound of fellow UK extreme metal juggernauts and scene pariahs, Cradle of Filth. Elements of ‘Dusk and Her Embrace’ can be heard throughout this record, although never so blatantly as it is in the tracks ‘Carpenter of Sorrow’, ‘Broken on the Wheel’ and ‘Tapestry Sewn’. The succession of these 3 songs tells a story all their own. Homage blatant, yet retaining certain individualistic components, these are a winding passage through madness which sustains their sound and turbulence.

‘Tapestry Sewn’ is particularly both brutal and elegant; feelings arise.

The sixth chapter in ‘Book I’ is sadness embodied in a multi-horned, seven headed Metal monstrosity entitled ‘Mothers Promise’. This is where the listener recognises that there is depth to this auditory assailant, and ‘Tableau Mort’ is for fucking real. This track opens the door which is marked with an X of lambs blood for this band moving forward.

In finality ‘Beyond His Gaze’ concludes this view through the ‘Veil of Stigma’, as through the looking glass, this is a reflection of what has been and what is yet to come in the valley of virtueless variance where Tableau Mort has made a home. Sharp and excessive, executed with a malady of melody, ‘Beyond His Gaze’ is extreme excellence at its finest.

All in all this record was a stellar listen. For fans of CoF, Dimmu Borgir and Old Mans Child, Tableau Mort is for you. These humble ears give this record 8 out of 10 and dark blessings to ‘Book I’.

Tableau Mort – Veil of Stigma. Book I: Mark of Delusion (Full Album)