Plat de resistance - A Feast of Sound from 18 Seconds

Artist: 18 Seconds

Album: Plat de résistance

Release Date: 03 -10 - 2025

Pascal Normand is the musician and composer behind the project 18 Seconds, and he is an artist that has always had my attention from a musical perspective. I previously reviewed his album À l'ombre des cyprès back in 2022 and have since kept in contact through social media. I have huge admiration for artists like Pascal who give everything to their music and to this underground scene of ours. They put so much more in than they take out and it’s because of people like Pascal that we have such a healthy, diverse and connected community.

On his latest release, Plat de resistance, 18 Seconds reduce the flickers of light that once threaded their sound, and on this journey, we step further and deeper into the shadows. Plat de resistance was born out of unrest and is a brooding reflection of a world teetering on the brink, where war is no longer an abstract backdrop but an altogether harrowing reality. With such a heavy theme, 18 Seconds tighten their grip on atmosphere and weight, weaving dense, ominous textures that echo the urgency of change and the defiance of resistance.  

À l'ombre des cyprès may have carried hints of melancholy with its take on the recent pandemic and climate change, but this latest record plunges a little deeper. It’s darker, heavier, and more unflinching in its confrontation with the fractures of our time but having said all that it’s an album that needs to be listened to, because there is a darkened beauty behind it all.

The opening track, L'ombre de leurs pas opens like a distant horizon slowly coming into view, all so subtle, deliberate, and heavy with atmosphere. A gentle guitar plucks and ripples outward while steady, almost ceremonial drums set the pace of a march that feels both inevitable and foreboding. The music immediately echoes the emotional landscapes of We Lost The Sea and the haunting weight of A Swarm Of The Sun. However, the tracks greatest strength lies in restraint, with each layer etched with patience, building tension like a tide that refuses to break too soon. By the time it swells into its crescendo, the music collapses under its own gravity, predicting chaos and entropy just around the corner.

In striking contrast, The Collapsing Canvas drifts in like a half-remembered dream. Its textures feel weightless, almost otherworldly, wrapping the listener in a haze of shimmering tones and lingering echoes. At its heart lies a spoken passage, delivered with quiet gravity, its words weaving seamlessly into the soundscape. What follows are my standout tracks of the album. Together, both Dessines-moi la haine and Des millions de mains plunge the record back into the darkness and weight I alluded to earlier, anchoring the album into a more unforgiving terrain. I read somewhere that this body of work was initially conceived as a kind of homage to the sonic intensity of This Will Destroy You’s Tunnel Blanket, with the shadow of Godspeed You! Black Emperor also looming large over Pascal’s vision. Nowhere is that lineage more apparent than in these two pieces. They seethe with tension, awash in drones, cavernous crescendos, and the kind of bleak grandeur that feels both crushing and strangely cathartic, making the experience not just impressive but utterly absorbing.

The closing pair, Le vent berce nos utopies and Tout est si proche, tout est loin, open a window to something brighter. Where much of the album is steeped in weight and unease, these tracks carry a gentler energy, offering moments of reprieve and quiet optimism. The guitars shimmer with warmth, melodies unfurl with grace, and the compositions feel effortlessly woven. Because of these two tracks, On Plat de resistance doesn’t descend into despair, but instead dares to leave the listener with a fragile yet undeniable sense of renewal and more importantly, hope. 18 Seconds is a project that continues to grow and mature, and this album is testament to that.

Plat de résistance | 18 Seconds