As I said when we covered Glorior Belli in last month’s Black Market: American black metal gets all the attention and credit for innovation (in America anyway) but the French scene makes us look like a nation of rigid, rules-minded purists. Even that country’s most prominent black metal bands are total iconoclasts: Alcest sound like Cocteau Twins, Blut Aus Nord sound like Front 242, Deathspell Omega sound like Univers Zero, Peste Noire sound like wine-stinking Parisian gypsy busker-pickpockets … so in France it’s probably not all that weird when a black metal band like Glorior Belli claims a heavy Southern rock influence. And this is not a casually made reference: Glorior Belli’s last album was called The Great Southern Darkness (not a nod to the South of France). To be fair, the band’s conception of Southern rock seems more Eyehategod than Skynryd, but still, this is black metal based in American blues.

Remarkably, that inspiration leads not to a disjointed, awkward hybrid (although it probably should), but just plain gnarly, hooky, raw black metal with a good deep groove. Glorior Belli are set to release their fifth LP, Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurls. And yes, that title CERTAINLY SUGGESTS a disjointed, awkward hybrid, but when the album hits its peaks, the “Southern” in question kinda sounds like Southern Lord, as in: the label behind Nails and All Pigs Must Die and Black Breath. At other points, like Nawlins sludge-rockers Crowbar or Down. And every now and then, maybe even some Black Oak Arkansas. Or something.

We’ve got Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurls for you to stream in full today. Give it a spin below.

Gators Rumble, Chaos Unfurls is out 11/12 via Agonia.