Anyone who knows me, and I mean really knows me, would see my attraction to a band whose thanks list in the CD booklet of their album reads "Sofy Major wishes to thank The Almighty Baphomet, nobody but him."

The first thing that grabbed me about 'Permission To Engage', the debut album from this extreme French outfit, was the album artwork and digipack; in an age where every other day we get an email telling us to review the songs on some spotty teen band's social network page, to actually get some quality physical product is fantastic. Sofy Major obviously take pride in their band and music and have presented something of real class in which to wrap it in. The face/skull cover art is exceptional and the booklet art featuring pentagrams, nazi youth and an incredible church tank (that has to be seen to be believed) is stunning. I like this before I have even popped the disc from the plastic teeth that hold it prisoner-like. That this album is also available as a 2xSplatter Vinyl set says it all.

What of the music, then? The heaviest thing to come out of France since modern-day Cantona, Sofy Major have pieced together a Frankenstein's monster of a sound that stitches musical extremity to brooding, headache-inducing heaviness; their citing of influences such as Godflesh, The Jesus Lizard and Neurosis should give you an idea of the dark forces at work here, sonically.  

'Permission To Engage' was released in co-operation with no less than five different record companies, thereby making a lot of people very happy for it is an album that is as terrifyingly sound as it is teeming with sublime touches of detail. The lyrics, in the second language of this terror trio remember, are hard-hitting and viciously scathing attacks on deserving sections of society; this may sound overly-familiar but Sofy Major do this with intelligence always beating out brutality, and all done as they walk the left hand path.

The intensity hardly lets up for the entirety of the album, from the doom-fueled opener/intro 'Sky Silence Broken' to the final track 'Eugene', the sombre introduction of which never really lets up, creating a desolate spoken word piece that is both heavingly heavy and hopeless. Some tracks trudge through sludge's swampy waters, while others, 'Outil' for example, throw up names like Mastodon due to the eclectic breaking of rock rules and formulas.

As intelligent as they are intense, Sofy Major have delivered a stun grenade of a debut.

www.sofymajor.com