ANTAEUS
Blood Libels
The Ajna Offensive
BLUT AUS NORD
The Work Which Transforms God
MoRT
Candlelight
DEATHSPELL OMEGA
Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice
Kénôse
The Ajna Offensive
SPEKTR
Near Death Experience
Candlelight
I’ve been listening to a fair amount of black metal lately, and it’s clear that the Scandinavians have lost control of their creation. The ancestral home of second-wave BM might be Norway, but in 2007, the torch is being kept ablaze in France. Yes, France, the country that for decades has been a rock wasteland (Magma being the sole, debatable exception). The four groups listed above have made some of the most compelling black metal of the last three years (the two Deathspell Omega releases are from 2004 and 2005 respectively, and Blut Aus Nord’s The Work… is from 2003, but the others are from 2006), inhabiting and incarnating a darkness that should make US lo-fi half-wits like Xasthur and Leviathan fill their jeans with hot, wet shit.
Antaeus are the most conventionally “rock” of the new crop of French black metallers that I’ve heard. Their first CD, the demo collection Cut Your Flesh And Worship Satan, has one of the greatest titles in all of metal, and lives up to it with blazing, fuzzed-out guitar riffs, screaming so harsh you can almost hear the vocal cords snapping, and drumming so relentless and minimal it’s worthy of Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Blood Libels, their third disc (I missed the middle one), features slightly better production but no slackening of their utter sonic and lyrical misanthropy. Occasional sound-effects and/or electronic touches only serve to accentuate the fundamental atavism of their work. Fans of Craft or early Immortal will very much enjoy this stuff.
Blut Aus Nord, by contrast, have ambition. Their 2003 release, The Work Which Transforms God, combined traditional black metal elements with industrial (but not of the Ministry/KMFDM guitars-on-the-dancefloor school) noise and effects—disconnected voices, drones and ambient sounds, etc., etc. Quite a few tracks were instrumental, most notably the 10-minute closer “Procession Of The Dead Clowns,” and some were simply short electronic bridges with no “metal” elements to them at all. Their latest disc, 2006’s MoRT (it’s an acronym for “Metamorphosis of Realistic Theories,” not a nod to death or Feldman), is even weirder. At times, it reminds me of Main’s Hz, but with extra surliness and psychedelia. The tracks are labeled as chapters, I through VIII, and they all blend together into a seamless47-minute whole. Chants and whispers drift past as ever-more-dissonant guitars seethe and wail, and the programmed drums seem mostly there to frustrate anybody searching for a rhythm. Anaal Nathrakh blend industrial with black metal, too, but they do it in a much more brutal and unsubtle way—they’re Ministry to Blut Aus Nord’s peak-period (Too Dark Park, Last Rights) Skinny Puppy. Folks who find most black metal too sonically and philosophically reductive should give these guys a listen.
Same goes for Deathspell Omega, particularly in the philosophy department. Their 2004 CD, Si Monumentum Requires, Circumspice (reissued this year), was somewhat schizophrenic; while they had some very good ideas regarding the use of medieval-style chanting for eeeeeevil, they kept losing their nerve and reverting back to the bash ’n’ screech that had dominated their first two albums. It was only on the follow-up EP, 2005’s Kénôse, that their art truly blossomed. Its three songs unfold over nearly 40 minutes, and the music has all the complexity of progressive rock, with enough riffs in each piece to fill a whole album by a less ambitious band. The first, near-16-minute track begins with five minutes of slow, un-distorted guitar over a doomy rhythm (and ends with three more), before the band catapults into gear and the ranting begins. The lyrics, like the music, are way over the top; Deathspell write in paragraphs, not verses, their vocalist croaking out endless lectures on the nature of divinity which the listener is encouraged to follow in the ultra-thick pamphlet enclosed within the digipak. (You know you’re in for it when the first word of each song is “Therefore…”) It can be a little hard to deal with over the long haul, but these guys are quite obviously very serious about what they’re doing, so “fun” is really beside the point.
The last of the bands I’m enjoying lately, Spektr, is much more opaque about intention and mission. Near Death Experience is possibly the most musically broad-minded of everything discussed in this piece, moving from electronic moodscapes to howling black metal to dissonant, almost jazzy instrumentals (“Whatever The Case May Be”). All the tracks are soaked in atmospheric effects, from static crackle to sudden bursts of distortion and digital glitches – far from embracing old-school black metal primitivism, Spektr chooses to create layers of sonic illusion. Indeed, some tracks, like “Visualization,” have little or nothing to do with metal – ghost voices drift in and out, amid clouds of whoosh and hiss, eventually giving way to surges of strings and distant cymbals and dubby drums. Near Death Experience is an argument for black metal as worldview rather than style – the genre’s trademark guitar and drum sounds are only briefly present, one more element in the mix rather than a dominant trope. Yet the feeling of desolate disorientation that underpins all the best black metal is a constant presence. That’s what all these bands have that catapults them out of the pack. Vive la France, and Hail Satan!
"France, the country that for decades has been a rock wasteland"
How can you say that? Johnny Halliday is still l'idole des jeunes!
Posted by: Mwanji Ezana at January 10, 2007 3:55 AMhey,
very nice and unusual post for bags, i'm going to investigate about those bands.
However, i strongly disagree about Magma being "the only debatable example" of french bands worthy of attention.
here are a few things, some interesting, and some really essential french rock bands
For the 70's, some of Richard Pinhas'"Heldon" (one album with Gilles Deleuze reading Nietsche, called "Heldon 2" i think, really beautiful song, and "interface" ), "Univers Zero" (the first two albums), some of the early "Art Zoid" shit is quite interesting in retrospect, "Lard Free", excellent prog band and great titles.
for the 80's, the "Catalogue" stuff (jac Berrocal's avant-punk band), particularly the "penetration" album on hat hut, "Metal Urbain", some very good shit too.
As for the 90's, an essential band, really important called "Bästard", three albums and some ep's, still findable as a 3 cd set ("the acoustic machine") reissued a few years ago by Ici d'ailleurs. mixing sonic youth oriented rock with tapeloops, samples and screaming vocals.
Finally, as i'm really into doomy stuff at the moment, I would add a young band called Monarch! to your french black/doom metal round-up. They are my favorite at this moment. very slow, dark and brutal, loads of feedback and throatgrinding vocals (vocalist is a really talented and charming young girl, hard to believe at first listen!), in the likes of noothgrush and Corrupted
they come from Bayonne and already have one double cd, a couple of splits and a vynil out,mainly on spanish label ThroneRecords, and are releasing a new LP very soon.
Their approach to visuals is also excellent, very naïve drawings playing with the cliches of black metal. They don't particularly consider themselves as a doom/black metal band, but simply a very slow rock band. but who cares about labelling! definitely one of the hottest bands in France at the moment
For info, visit http//www.myspace.com/monarchuberalles
if you're in paris, they are playing on the 20th of Jan, don't miss'em
Enjoy!
Posted by: baz at January 10, 2007 6:48 AMI've heard very good things about Monarch; thanks for the reminder. I need to look them up soon.
Posted by: pdf at January 10, 2007 9:06 AM"How can you say that? Johnny Halliday is still l'idole des jeunes!"
I didn't know that. Maybe in Switzerland where he recently moved for not paying taxes ?
He is a Nicolas Sarkozy's supporter, NS is minister and candidate to the next presidential elections
(not so much rock&roll :-)
Mwanji Ezana.. that's French, boy Bach!
Unfortunately, Jacques, the rather laughable truth is that Johnny still IS the idole des jeunes - not ALL young people, thank goodness, but enough to make me seriously question the sanity of my adopted country. It's the logical and tragic result of the French star system - once you're a star you'll stay a star forever, no matter how shit you are, you never get knocked off your pedestal into the shit in this country (because the rock press has no balls). And if you can't sing at all - not that it ever stopped Jane Birkin - you can always become an actor / actress.
Ah Ah Dan !
I agree with you about french (imperialist) star system, and people like Jane Birkin... it's a pity.
But Johnny's fans become very old anyway, I guess...
Fortunately Keith's fans are younger :-)
>It's the logical and tragic result of the French star system - once you're a star you'll stay a star forever, no matter how shit you are, you never get knocked off your pedestal into the shit in this country (because the rock press has no balls).
I know you're not asserting this as something uniquely French. I mean, look at the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen...even Lou Reed.
Posted by: pdf at January 10, 2007 10:54 AMA small correction for baz: Univers Zéro is Belgian (I've never heard them, but since almost all of Belgium's cultural contributions seem to get attributed to France, someone needs to keep the record straight, and why not a Frenchman in Belgium?).
Dan,
Mwanji Ezana.. that's French, boy Bach!
I don't have a clue what you mean.
I don't think the percentage of everlasting stars is higher in France than anywhere else. Apart from Johnny and Michel Drucker (TV host), there aren't really too many, are there?
Jacques,
Of course, the point is that he's *not* moving to Switzerland, just paying his taxes there. Considering that he stole 90% of his music from America, it kind of makes sense.
Posted by: Mwanji Ezana at January 13, 2007 1:39 PM"A small correction for baz: Univers Zéro is Belgian"
and kicked ass. As did Aksak Maboul, more Belgians.
On the French side, I was always partial to some Ange...
Posted by: Alastair at January 13, 2007 3:41 PM"Of course, the point is that he's *not* moving to Switzerland, just paying his taxes there. Considering that he stole 90% of his music from America, it kind of makes sense."
Of course that makes sense. The beauty of it is that it would make as much sense if he stole his music in England!
Posted by: uli at January 13, 2007 4:02 PMAs for France, sorry, but yer obtusely reducing the story to Magma. Beyond Heldon, Berrocal and Gilbert Artman, label Futura's outsider freaks like Fille Qui Mousse, Red Noise, Barricade, Horde Catalytique pour la Fin or Mahogany Brain should fill in the gap for those interested in adventurous (twisted rock) music, besides their affiliation with a free jazz label that perhaps is not totally obscure to readers and writers in these pages...( or try some Etron Fou Leloublan, Toupidek Limonade, Hellebore, Octavo, Catherine Ribeiro and Alpes, Ptôse, Ulan Bator, Sandrose, Shylock, Look De Bouk, Albert Marcoeur, Volapük, Rhesus O, Weidorje, Moving Gelatine Plates, Zao, Un Drame Musical Instantané, Mahjun, Catharsis, Archaia, Crium Delirium, Komintern, Etage 34, for a brader spectrum)
Otherwise, there is a misconception about Black Metal as being just "primitive", the same way death metal is just "brutal music", or free jazz "a bag filled with cats". Not necessarily BM's qualities get "improved" by adding electronics or unusual arrangements. there's plenty of bands in the genre that while playing "straight BM" with gtr/dms/bs manage to create unusual atmospheres and song structures. Although BM has always been a lot about atmosphere, rawness, velocity and elemental to quite developed levels of musicianship, its strenght being a finely tuned taste for all things creepy and grim, it is always been open to quite diverse influences from the start, hence its diversity and continuous renewal.
And for the US, Profanatica has been a truly pioneering BM band never acknowledged. Don't believe the hype...
that Futura stuff is mostly fantastic, but it's also mostly a stretch to call it rock and roll. but yeah, that's who I thought of first when reading Phil's silliness...
Posted by: jon abbey at January 13, 2007 7:38 PM"Fortunately Keith's fans are younger :-)"
Keith Rowe or Keith Richards?
"'that's French, boy Bach!'
I don't have a clue what you mean."
I'm quoting The Outing by Dylan Thomas, but never mind, not important. Just that your name didn't sound all that French, that's all..
"I don't think the percentage of everlasting stars is higher in France than anywhere else. Apart from Johnny and Michel Drucker (TV host), there aren't really too many, are there?"
Do you actually live here in France, may I ask?
"Just that your name didn't sound all that French, that's all.."
Well, the surname can be traced back to Ethiopia, 4th century AD and the first name is African, but my family's been french since at least 1848.
"Do you actually live here in France, may I ask?"
Did it for four years and had enough, but I still get the main TV channels. I'll admit to not reading Paris Match and the like...
Posted by: Mwanji Ezana at January 14, 2007 3:05 PMNot rock'n'roll but in the rock tradition that paved the way for free music where rock elements & attitude were admitted (or deconstructed) with no remorse...
Posted by: Marcelo Aguirre at January 14, 2007 4:03 PMWow, 4th century - cool. That's 400 years older than mine, haha. Well, dunno Mwanji, I think there are plenty of stars-that-refuse-to-die here in la belle France: Bruel, Pagny, Bohringer, Delpech, Goldman, Lavilliers, Paradis, Obispo, Fugain, Farmer, Birkin, Voulzy, Vilard..
Posted by: Dan Warburton at January 14, 2007 10:53 PMI've enjoyed many of the same records recently - good to see the French black metal scene get some attention. There's a lot of talent there!
Posted by: Invisible Oranges at February 18, 2007 9:22 AMTorch cannot stay in one country forever, and like it or not it is in the process of being passed to France fron Norway, it hurts to write it as I love n respect few of the Norwegian black metal bands but I know that they will stay remain the best , so I don't have a lot to worry about, but new talent is always appreciated and I don't have heard many of french black metal bands but I've heard a few and as far as I m concerned they are good. Some people who like Cof n DB, they can refer to a French black metal band Anorexia Nervosa, but unlike the 2 bands I've mentioned above Anorexia Nervosa is a black metal band. They include symphony but only to that extent that will sound good in a black metal song. If you want to say anything to me, mail me at "lycan_lucian@hotmail.com"
Posted by: Gillani at February 19, 2007 10:22 AMI would be curious as to what you thought of the latest offerings from Blut Aus Nord (Odinist)and Deathspell Omega (Fas--Ite Maledicti In Ignem Aternem)?
Posted by: Jay Mahan at March 26, 2008 11:54 AM.................................................. © 2003 - 2006 bagatellen ..................................................