(written by Islander)
All ardent and avid followers of music like to go exploring, in search of artists they’ve never heard before who might ring some previously un-rung chimes in their head. Of course, such listeners are also drawn to whatever new is propagated by artists whose previous releases have already primed their followers to expect some kind of joyful reaction, even when the music might sound wretched to un-schooled ears.
And then there are artists who simultaneously trigger both reactions, where past experience means you’re going to dive into whatever they decide to release, and where you also expect to find something unexpected.
In my case, Bonjour Tristesse is one of those bands. As you may know, it’s the solo work of Nathanael, who is also in Heretoir, and has been in King Apathy, Thränenkind, Agrypnie, and ClearXcut. Even the band’s name (“hello sadness”) signifies a focus on existential despair, and the music has historically delved quite powerfully into depressive moods, but it hasn’t been frozen in form. Surprises still lie in wait, and they do again in The World Without Us, the forthcoming fourth album of Bonjour Tristesse, which will be released on October 18th by Supreme Chaos Records.
The new full-length concludes a two-album concept that began with the band’s third release, Against Leviathan!, last year. As described by the label, “the two records feature a radical critique of our industrialized modern age, highlighting the conflict between civilized humanity and nature”. In doing so, it makes reference to “anti-civilization thinkers and existentialist writers” in a way that adds poetic notes to an experience that is often raw, raging, and emotionally devastated.
I’ve already commented on the first song I heard from the new album (the first single released from it). Forgive me for repeating those impressions of “Running on Emptiness“:
With a bit of ethereal eeriness of its own at the outset, the song begins racing in an exhilarating blaze of sound, drums clattering and detonating at a furious clip, and the vocals shrieking in displays of shattering torment or fury.
Those incendiary chords and vibrantly trilling leads rise and fall, as if a wildfire had discovered how to roll like waves, channeling moods of despair and sorrow, wistfulness and regret. It’s the kind of mood-moving black metal that’s wholly immersive, suffusing the senses and creating panoramic sweep.
There’s one point in the song where the music briefly becomes much softer and reflective, but it’s a very quick break. Afterward, the music races again, and the fires swell to even more glorious and frightening heights, though the lead guitar slowly rings sounds of mourning through the maelstrom.
Bonjour Tristesse has decided to follow that song with a lyric video for one named “Lightbearer”, and we’re premiering it today. It’s described as a track that “delves into the duality of perception, contrasting the condemnation by demagogic priests, inspired by Mikhail Bakunin’s God and the State.”
Bakunin was a Russian revolutionary anarchist, hostile to the shackles imposed on inborn human freedom by both the State and the Church. He embraced the symbol of Satan as “the eternal rebel, the first freethinker and the emancipator of worlds.” You’ll see that quotation from Bakunin, and others from God and the State, in the lyrics of “Lightbearer“, which exalts the idea of Satan and condemns the enslavement of religion.
As for the music, it is pure rage — fire given form in sound. There is no slowing, no diversion, only gale-force waves of burning tremolo-d chords that rise and fall above maniacally blasting drums and screaming that’s pitched at the high end of human endurance.
But Bonjour Tristesse again finds a way to use those wildfire riffs and the piercing trill of the leads as vehicles for more than the channeling of rage. The melody is a genuine hybrid that, as it crests and descends, also manifests moods of bitterness and pain, of disgust and despair. And as this concise song nears its end, the music sweeps the senses with yet another mood — a feeling of longing, maybe even an imagining of something victorious.
The World Without Us will be released by Supreme Chaos on CD, vinyl LP, cassette tape, and digital formats — on October 18th. They’re available for order now.
PRE-ORDER:
https://supremechaos.com/artists/bonjour-tristesse/
MORE LINKS:
https://supremechaos.com/link/bonjourtristesse/