Release Date May 22nd, 2026
Format LP/Digital
Genre Progressive/Doom Post Metal
Origin France
Endless Floods formed in Bordeaux, France in 2015, built around Stéphane Miollan, Benjamin Sablon and Simon Bédy. Their early material worked through drone, doom and ambient forms, with a heavy, bleak character and long form construction. The band released "Endless Floods" in 2015, "Ii" in 2017 and "Circle The Gold" later on, before returning after a five year break with "Rites Futurs" in 2024. On "Passages", the lineup includes Louise Dehaye, Benjamin Sablon, Stéphane Miollan and Xavier Godart, continuing the band’s shift into broader post metal, doom, shoegaze, dark folk and atmospheric territory.
"Passages" is not an album made for quick impact. Endless Floods work with patience, long waves of sound, heavy guitars, distant vocals, synth layers and saxophone colors that give the album a ghostly identity. The music has a clear post metal base, with doom foundations underneath and a darker, almost ceremonial folk shade drifting through it. It is heavy, emotional and often bleak, without going for easy hooks or cheap aggression.
The main strength of the album is its atmosphere. Endless Floods know how to build a cold and shadowed landscape, and then let the guitars rise with force when needed. The male and female vocal parts add a human presence inside all that darkness, giving the album more depth than a simple riff based release. The synths and saxophone are used with taste, adding tension and color, not random decoration. The result has scale, sadness and a strange beauty, even when the music sinks deep into gloom.
The weaker side is that "Passages" can ask a lot from the listener. Its pacing is slow, its structures are wide, and the album sometimes circles around its ideas longer than necessary. That is part of its identity, sure, still there are moments where the impact could have been sharper. Anyone searching for instant choruses, fast riffs or traditional song movement may struggle here. This is music that opens slowly and takes its time, and that patience is not always rewarded with the same force.
"Passages" is a serious and carefully shaped album from a band with its own path. Endless Floods sounds heavy without becoming basic, atmospheric without turning weak, and emotional without begging for sympathy. It is not perfect, and it does not always strike as hard as it could, though its vision is clear and its dark atmosphere stays with you after it ends. A strong release for listeners who like their post metal bleak, cinematic and soaked in doom.
|7.5
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