Description

Peste Noire is a quite unique experimental black metal band from rural France that sings about the glory of rural traditions as opposed to modern decadence in metropolises. The song writing is quite original as the band convinces both in its more elaborated and technical parts and the fast and simplistic passages. The authentic trio adds accordions, Hammond organs and pianos to their sinister extreme metal sound. The mixture of raw black metal vocals, a few male clean vocals, female clean vocals and even narrative and spoken word passages adds even more diversity to the sound. The French lyrics are also quite addicting and are filled with dark sarcasm and experimental writing techniques. The risk of this unique and open-minded yet uncompromising attitude is that some experiments aren’t successful in the end. La Chaise-Dyable is a compendium of familiar motifs, themes, visuals, odours, defecations, and revulsions recycled into one musical composition. The finished product is like a scrapbook of the Peste Noire discography, a mnemonic medley of aural recollections and reminders of who the band are and what they represent. Oozing with the same incurably diseased blood, the morbidly festering flesh, Peste Noire emerge again, a bulging, bloated corpse smothered by bubons and boils. For all of that, however, La Chaise-Dyable is still a new creation, even if it has taken the shape of something remembering old creations. There is, after all, something palpably reflective about this album; the sense of reminiscence is pervasive and unmistakable. While Peste Noire have hitherto been renowned for their forward motion, for their unrelenting Blitzkrieg against convention and stagnancy and social malaise, there is presently a certain sensation of slowing down. Since the ancillary dimensions of the band remain unchanged, with the imagery and lyrical content maintaining the same sort of themes as ever, the focus on the surface remains that of any Peste Noire album: French nationalism, anti-Revolutionary sentiments, hooliganism, flagrant alcoholism, and an abiding interest in the Devil as the character of a medieval mystery play. The music, on the other hand, has been blunted somewhat; there is a conspicuous absence of that obnoxious, obvious virility that characterized earlier records. This is not necessarily a complaint, either, for it is equally conspicuous that the attention has been redirected inwardly. Instead of the abrasive, abusive, and jubilant rapaciousness that we have grown accustomed to, there is in La Chaise-Dyable an almost studious introversion, a self-investigation that, rather than continuing to explore new ground, required the recourse to earlier methods. In the end, Peste Noire’s sixth full length release since its foundation fifteen years ago includes more positive elements than negative parts. L Ordure A Letat Pur is still Peste Noire‘s best album; it shattered the dim and impotent customs of the black metal world with a violent new reimagining of the original black metal spirit. It is their high-water mark, and as such it will not be surpassed. But the fact is that this album is indeed contemplative, and its responsibility is as something that watches over history and records it, and in that role it succeeds beautifully: in La Chaise-Dyable the entire Peste Noire project is encapsulated, and is not less integral to it than any other album.

Track listing:
1. Avant Le Putsch
2. Le Dernier Putsch
3. Payes Sur La Bête
4. Le Diable Existe
5. A La Chaise-Dyable
6. Quand Je Bois Du Vin
7. Dans Ma Nuit-second version