Back to the 14 titles that compose 'Les Blessures de l'Ombre' ('The Wounds of the Shadows' in English). The whole impression is that Dernière Volonté follow, musically, the path that allowed 'Le Feu Sacré' to receive good feedback with their style of military pop mixed with ambient martial parts. Nevertheless, a few musical and emotional elements reminding 'Obéir et Mourir' are also present, in particular in the first track 'Ouverture' composed of slow and melancholic waves of synthetiser, close to the LJDLP sound and on the beginning of 'Les Orages du Crime' as well. But, the comparison between these two French formation stops here, as the album offers mostly electro pop martial songs with Geoffroy's recognisable voice singing in French and some ambient martial tracks...
Geoffroy's lyrics, present on the booklet of the CD and on the inner cover of the gatefold, deal mainly with the themes of pain, love, friendship, death, memories, the past... and are much more inspired than by the past...
Two songs are the fruit of a collaboration: with His Divine Grace (another French formation responsible for two releases on HR!) on 'Souvenirs de Demain' and with Marthynna and Albin Julius on the calm but nonetheless martial 'Vienna', a ballad à la Novy Svet that could have been an excellent title for a 7" release as well...
The whole album is very pleasant to listen to, but nevertheless I would like to draw attention to at least four tracks that in my opinion surpass the others... 'La Foudre et le Tonnerre' (for its catchy martial pop melody and its particularly inspired text), 'Vers la Lumière' (for the rhythm guided by the percussions and parsimoniously tainted with a few electronic sounds), the excellent martial and rather orchestral eponymous track 'Les Blessures de l'Ombre' and finally my favourite 'Si...' that begins 'at a very low level with a male voice singing with some echoes that make me think of an ecclesiastical recording '...le diable nous emporte sournoisement avec lui...' before giving place to a very nice pop song still rythmed by some militaristic drums and again accompanied by some particularly inspired lyrics.

The vinyl's lovers/collectors have not been forgotten since there is also a gatefold LP edition limited to 500 copies that comes with a single sided 7" featuring a very catchy good song that does not appear on the CD. I can just regret the quality of the vinyl pressing (at least concerning my proper 7" copy) as, unfortunately, some cracklings on Geoffroy voice spoil the listening of the first third of the side... Nevertheless, I will obviously recommend the listening of the album on vinyl for the fullness of the sound as well as for the aesthetic aspect of the record. I think there is no need to argument this any further.