Band: Peste Noire Country: Avignon, France
Style: Avant-Garde/Black Metal
Label: La Mesnie Herlequin
With a story like Peste Noire's you've got to admire La Sale Famine de Valfunde for keeping the band DIY and very primal in his aesthetic. With each new full-length the band, or rather his songwriting, grows and evolves into more and more avant-garde realms. This new album seems to take things to a realm that many didn't think you'd ever find in black metal.
Despite being tagged as simply black metal, as wide as that overarching tag is, I think it often gives the impression of a much more singular and straightforward sound and ideal that never quite stuck with the band. Even the band at their most traditional, have never been the most usual or ordinary group. Experimenting with everything from post-punk and pop music, in terms of making songs catchy, to almost garage rock at times, there has never been anything ordinary or traditional about Peste Noire in my opinion. So what can you expect on here that the band has never done before, well at times there's plenty of the band's own brand of black metal going on, other times you'll have a more big-band sort of vibe with brass and accordions, and you'll even hear electronic dance beats you'd think would be more appropriate in a dance club. There's also plenty of more folk/acoustic led sections that wouldn't feel out of place on an Opeth album either. So yeah, if you think this band is traditional, I'd love to hear what you listen to.
I was looking at some reviews of this album and I saw it tagged as Oi!, and while I never really thought much about the band being that rowdy, if you will, but there's certainly a punk vibe on this album. As oppose to any pop-punk you might hear on the radio or hear on tv nowadays, this is real punk, going against the grain and just not giving a fuck about being trve or kvlt, those for all I know these guys could totally believe they're the above. Tracks like Casse, Peches, Fractures Et Traditions and J’avais Rêvé Du Nord II would make it hard to believe if the band said they weren't trying to be anything but traditional. The riffs are aggressive, but definitely leaning into more progressive areas, the song structures are adventurous, it's certainly breaking the conventional norms of black metal.
It's a band and a record that will break any preconceived notions of "traditional" black metal with it's punk spirit and fuck you! attitude. I don't know if I'd say this is the band's most adventurous record, but it's certainly up there with the last one, 2009's "Ballade Cuntre Lo Anemi Francor." Definitely check this record out if you're into experimental, or progressive black metal.
Overall Score: 8.5
Highlights: J’avais Rêvé Du Nord I, J’avais Rêvé Du Nord II
This release is for 9 minimum.
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