Imagine yourself as a character in a waking dream, finding yourself transported centuries into the past and venturing into a French cabaret populated by aristocratic Satanists and those practicing medieval witchcraft, with vampires roaming in their midst, draining blood from crystal goblets instead of wine. Imagining such a scene, an unreal dreamscape of ancient elegance and palpable danger, is one way of preparing yourself for the music to be found on the new second album by the Brazilian “supergroup” Le Chant Noir.
That album, La Société Satanique Des Poètes Morts, is set for release by Personal Records on October 22nd. As the press materials faithfully describe it, the songs “thread together the darkest fibers of archaic black metal, doom metal, and even dark metal, arriving at a sort of avant-garde symphonic black metal that’s simultaneously an authentic throwback and refreshingly modern”.
The album is indeed an out-of-the-ordinary experience, a kind of macabre musical theater that proves to be genuinely transportive. Even the one song we’re premiering today has that effect. Its name is “Les Métamorphoses Du Vampire“.
A simple, melancholy piano melody opens the song, and even as it proceeds, the full band join in and embellish it with thundering drums, feverish riffing, and dense, sweeping waves of symphonic sound. What was melancholy becomes anguished and frenzied, and the appearance of savage, throat-cutting snarls bolsters the intensity even more. It’s like an emotional conflagration, but the band reduce the flames and soften the turbulence as the beats become steady and the lead guitar seems to moan and wail. Layered vocals that straddle an uneven line between speaking and singing still sound vicious.
The music catches fire and becomes sweeping in its scale again, though the piano can still be heard. Cracked and croaking voices contribute to the feeling of hopelessness, gloom, and peril as the pace again steadies. A woman speaks… and the conflagration swells once more, cutting through the mind like scythes of flame.
The music continues to ebb and flow, working the song’s sad central melody deeper and deeper into the listener’s head, using a bland of classicism and savagery to fashion moods that are beseeching, broken-hearted, and full of ruinous pain. Both majestic and macabre, it’s an unsettling yet spellbinding song, one not soon forgotten. Listen:
We referred to Le Chant Noir as a Brazilian “supergroup”, and that’s because its line-up includes these members: vocalist Lord Kaiaphas, known for the classic albums of Norway’s Ancient, Mad Grandiose Bloodfiends and The Cainian Chronicles, as well as Thokkian Vortex among others; guitarist Mantus AKA Marcelo Vasco, known for such bands as The Troops of Doom, Patria, and Mysteriis as well as being an acclaimed graphic artist for the likes of Slayer, Kreator, Machine Head, Soulfly, and Hatebreed; and the drummer Malphas, who’s a bandmate of Vasco’s in Mysteriis.
Personal Records will present La Société Satanique des Poètes Morts on CD format. Digital distribution will be handled by Blood Blast. More info can be found via the links below, and below you’ll also find streams of two previously released tracks, “Priére á Satan” and “Eloa, Le Bel Ange“.
PRE-ORDER:
https://personal-records.bandcamp.com/album/la-soci-t-satanique-des-po-tes-morts
LE CHANT NOIR:
https://www.facebook.com/lechantnoirofficial