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As much as I love French metal bands, I'm often left scratching my head over some of the band names that they come up with. In the case of General Lee, I don't know if this French band saw something especially majestic and epic in either the Confederate general from the American Civil War or the car from The Dukes Of Hazzard that shared his name, but either way, it's a weird fucking name for a band that plays this sort of ultra emotive shoegazer metal. The music, however, is awesome. Even if you're one of these jaded types who has totally had it with the Neurosis-inspired metallic post-rock sound, General Lee are one those few bands that really do it right, putting their own stamp on the sound by taking it even deeper into shoegazer territory. The gruff, Neurosis-esque vocals, minor key riffs and apocalyptic dirges that peak throughout Hannibal Ad Portas point towards Through Silver In Blood and Times Of Grace as obviously being a huge influence on General Lee's sound, but from these heavy sections the band delves deep into passages of fragile, dreamlike beauty crafted on sheets of heavily delayed clean guitar, super-slow metronomic beats, gauzy electronic drones and ethereal vocal harmonies that actually make 'em sound like a massive hybrid of late 90's Neurosis, Slowdive and Codeine, which right there should have fans of Year Of No Light scrambling to hear this. The six songs that are featured here are really well written, the heaviness balanced perfectly with the dreamy melancholic melodies, the sound bleak and beautiful, monolithic and utterly mournful, and the more I listen to this disc, the more I love it. General Lee are heavier and slower than Year Of No Light, with more of a slowcore sound in their quieter moments, but the feel is really similiar. Anyone into that emotive metallic French sound shared by bands like Year Of No Light, Cortez, Overmars, and Omega Massif need to check these guys out, and even fans of Envy's dramatic emo-metal will likely love em. The disc is packaged in a cool arigato-style cardboard case with full color artwork of cloud-capped mountains, and comes with a small printed insert.