OUR LIST OF 2017’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS (PART 15): TAAKE, ULVEGR, SELBST, NOVA, AU CHAMP DES MORTS

 MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2017  9 Responses »
Jan 282018
 

 

My NCS time has been constricted by other activities this weekend, so I won’t have time to prepare the usual Sunday SHADES OF BLACK column, but to (sort of) make up for that I did decide to focus on black metal in this 15th Part of my Most Infectious Song list. And I also decided to pack five songs into this installment rather than the usual smaller number.

Hope you enjoy these choices, especially because it was so tough for me to pick just one song from each of the albums released by these bands last year. I think they make a pretty damned powerful playlist.

TAAKE

I delivered an impulsive though compact review of Kong Vinter very soon after listening to it for the first time, and proclaimed it one of my favorite albums of 2017. My impression now, two months later, is that it was under-appreciated in the froth of year-end lists, perhaps because it came out so late in the year and was preceded by the release of only one single (“Inntrenger”). Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: AU CHAMP DES MORTS

 Interviews  1 Response »
Feb 032017
 

 

(Norway-based NCS contributor Karina Noctum brings us this interview with members of the French band Au Champ des Morts, whose new album Dans La Joie we premiered and reviewed here.)

After I listened to the La Jour Se Lève EP last year and then heard an album was in the making, I started anticipating it. Besides, Au Champ des Morts are from France, and I like the French approach to Black Metal.

The new album is really a fine piece of dark art. The anguish and despair of the good old days is totally there. The contrast in the titles is interesting. I really like it! It invites you to take stuff for what it is, the dark and fearful mythology that culminates in the vision of the end of the world. ACdM play a bit with the ironical modern sanitization of religion that is just an attempt to put a nice package around something that actually withholds lots of darkness. Continue reading »

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AU CHAMP DES MORTS — “DANS LA JOIE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 272017
 

 

Today is the day when Debemur Morti Productions releases Dans La Joie, the debut album by the French band Au Champ Des Morts, and we’re helping people to discover it.

That’s a worthy mission, because the album is an emotionally intense experience of rare quality. Over the course of helping to premiere two tracks from the album, I’ve already spilled a lot of words about it. So in a rare attempt at brevity, I’m going to introduce the album stream in a summing up that focuses more on the music’s emotional resonance, as I feel it, than on any kind of intricate dissection of its many facets and ingredients. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AU CHAMP DES MORTS — “LE SANG, LA MORT, LA CHUTE”

 Premieres  No Responses »
Jan 182017
 

 

Two weeks ago we brought you the premiere of the title track to Dans La Joie, the debut album by the French band Au Champ Des Morts that’s now less than 10 days away from its official release by Debemur Morti Productions, and today we have another excerpt from the album — “Le Sang, La Mort, La Chute”.

For those who are only now discovering the band, it was founded in 2014 by guitarist/vocalist Stefan Bayle (Anorexia Nervosa) and he is joined on this album by bassist/vocalist Cecile G. and drummer Wilhelm. Dans La Joie was preceded by an impressive debut EP (Le Jour Se Lève) released by Debemur Morti last June. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AU CHAMP DES MORTS — “DANS LA JOIE”

 Premieres  1 Response »
Jan 042017
 

 

Last June the Debemur Morti label released a most impressive debut EP (Le Jour Se Lève) by the French band Au Champ Des Morts, which we had the pleasure of premiering. In those first songs, the band proved themselves to be powerful sonic spellcasters, with a talent for creating dynamic, richly textured music with a black metal core that hit with riveting emotional intensity. Debemur Morti is now following that EP with the release of the band’s debut album Dans La Joie later this month, and we have for you today a stream of its title track.

Au Champ Des Morts was founded in 2014 by guitarist/vocalist Stefan Bayle (Anorexia Nervosa) and he is joined on this album by bassist/vocalist Cecile G. and drummer Wilhelm. As you can see, the album also greatly benefits by the striking cover art of Dehn Sora. Continue reading »

AN NCS EP PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): AU CHAMP DES MORTS — “JOUR SE LÉVE”

 Album Reviews, Premieres, SHORT BUT SWEET  3 Responses »
Jun 272016
 

Au Champ Des Morts cover

 

In April we were privileged to bring you the premiere of the title track to Le Jour Se Lève, the debut EP of a precocious French band named Au Champ Des Morts, and today we share with you a stream of the entire EP, which has now been released by Debemur Morti Productions.

ACDM was founded in 2014 by Stefan Bayle (Anorexia Nervosa) and Migreich (VULV), and this EP is a precursor to the band’s debut album, which will also be released by Debemur Morti. The EP consists of two songs, both of which quickly establish this band as one to watch closely. Continue reading »

AN NCS PREMIERE: AU CHAMP DES MORTS — “LE JOUR SE LÉVE”

 Premieres  3 Responses »
Apr 152016
 

Au Champ Des Morts cover

 

Debemur Morti Productions have discovered yet another gem amidst the great piles of detritus that litter the metal scene. This time the band is a young French group named Au Champ Des Morts. ACDM was founded in 2014 by Stefan Bayle (Anorexia Nervosa) and Migreich (VULV). DMP will introduce them to discerning listeners through the release of a debut, two-track 7″ EP entitled Le Jour Se Léve and will follow that later this year with the band’s first album. What we have for you today is a stream of the EP’s title track.

The song is not confined by rigid genre boundaries, though black metal beats at its heart. At the start, the music crashes like waves driven by a storm surge, with a moving blast-front of intensely emotional melody pierced by savage vocal cries. After that initial gale of ripping guitars and pulsing rhythms, the force subsides, replaced by ethereal guitar notes and the ambient shimmer of keyboards. Continue reading »