Peste Noire

Peste Noire was created by La sale Famine de Valfunde (i.e. "The filthy Famine of Valfunde") in Avignon in 2000, initially under the name Dor Daedeloth. Neige (Alcest), who played in the band's first eight years of existence, joined him on drums.[6] Together they crafted four demos and one split demo tape. Argoth, a bass player also member of early Alcest fame, helped up to the 2002 "Mémoire Païenne" split.[7] The band was supposed to release an album entitled Les Salisseurs de Lumière around 2005 and early 2006 through Drakkar Productions, but Famine was not satisfied with the production and decided to cancel the release.

In 2006, Famine hired new members Winterhalter (drums) and Indria (bass) to assist with La Sanie des siècles – Panégyrique de la dégénérescence, produced by French label De profundis éditions in August 2006.[8][9] The music on their first effort was mostly melodic and sorrowful, turning at times towards a more aggressive and chaotic sound within lengthy and elaborate song structures. With hymns such as "Dueil Angoisseus", "Spleen", or "Le Mort Joyeux", the record caused a stir in the underground black metal scene. It helped establish the band on an international level.[10]

De profundis éditions[8] produced Peste Noire's second album Folkfuck Folie, released in June 2007. The lyrics can seem autobiographical and deal with apocalyptic themes, the triumph of the body over the mind, barbarism and wartime poetry, the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases, and mental disorder and feature a deliberately poor production quality, and the music was much more chaotic, morose and dissonant so as to, as Famine described; "scare off trendies" who praised the band's debut album.[11]

In March 2009, Peste Noire released their third album Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor ("Ballad against the enemies of France") with a new line-up.[12] The production was kept lo-fi and raw on purpose and features elements of post-punk, folk and traditional militant hymns and ballads, and it was also the band's first album with overtly nationalistic lyrics, featuring a French military march derived from "Warszawianka" (1905) called "Les hussards de Bercheny" and the band's interpretation of a 1909 chant called "La France Bouge" written for the Camelots du Roi, the violent youth organization of the French Far-right and Monarchist counter-revolutionary movement Action Française.[13][14][12]

Having relocated to Auvergne, Famine created his own label, La mesnie Herlequin, in May 2011 to release the band's fourth release[15] L'Ordure à l'état Pur ("The pure essence of garbage").[16] The album booklet contains anti-semitic, anti-feminist and anti-immigration charicatures and symbolism.[17] It has stylistic influences from several genres, both old and modern mixed with the band's signature style of black metal, including Eurobeat, traditional Gallic music, French folk, Burlesque and Cabaret music, Electro-industrial and Hardcore punk, as well as featuring samples of news reports, BDSM orgies and riots.[18][19][20] The album was widely praised for being so musically dynamic and eccentric.

A Canadian division of La mesnie Herlequin called "LMH Amérique" was created by Transcendental Creations in association with the band, it was active in 2011 but the association was ended by Famine in 2013 due to wholesale overpricing on LMH Amérique's part, as well as withholding owed royalties. All Peste Noire material and merchandise produced by Transcendental Creations is now considered bootleg by the band.

The band's fifth album, self-titled as Peste Noire, was released in June 2013 on their own label. It was entirely composed, recorded and mixed by Famine and new drummer Ardraos. The album theme is anti-urban and inspired by local history, folklore and legends, and contains Oi! influences. The album featured guest vocals by Roman Saenko of Drudkh and Hate Forest fame, Ravenlord and Melkor of the controversial Swedish band Woods of Infinity, and Lord Arawn from Sacrificia Mortuorum[21]

La Chaise-Dyable, the band's sixth album, was recorded at La mesnie Herlequin and released in 2015, musically the album sees the band continue the style and influences featured in the previous self-titled album and the lyrics, according to Famine deal with countryside boredom and monotony, anarchism and the region of La Chaise-Dieu.[22][23][24] In a first for the group, the second version of the song "Dans ma nuit" was the subject of a professional music video directed by Anaon Productions, who also produced a documentary for the band mainly about the album's production but also about the band's concept and views.[25] It was around this time that Famine began openly showing his support to the Azov battalion in Ukraine. Another music video was made in 2017 for the song "Le dernier putsch", it featured М8Л8ТХ founder and frontman Alexey Levkin who also helped co-produce the video with his label Militant Zone, as well as organize a private release screening of the video for both bands, their fans and invited guests like Finnish NSBM band Goatmoon.

The band signed with the Ukrainian NSBM label[3] Militant Zone in 2015 after the release of La Chaise-Dyable to distribute their albums, in collaboration with their own label La mesnie Herlequin.

In October 2016, Peste Noire was taken off of the concert schedule of Drohende Schatten's Sinister Howling V Festival in Speyer, Germany. Norwegian band One Tail One Head replaced them. Peste Noire was forced off the black metal festival by officials of the city of Speyer. This would have been Peste Noire's first festival performance in ten years.[26][27] German politician Katrin Werner wrote an open letter to Hansjörg Eger, Mayor of Speyer, warning that Peste Noire was planning to perform somewhere nearby, but one day earlier. Werner pointed out the connections between Peste Noire and neo-Nazi symbols or music, describing the logo of Peste Noire as the same skull and crossbones as the American white supremacist group White Aryan Resistance, and she said that the label Northern Heritage had published a collaboration between Peste Noire and the Finnish band Horna which has been connected to neo-Nazi black metal bands through their record label. Werner said that Famine has been photographed in front of Nazi backgrounds, and that Famine has used the Nazi salute.[28]

The band released their seventh studio album Peste Noire – Split – Peste Noire on 14 December 2018. The cover image was criticized in reviews for being openly racist, with Famine dressed in an old KKK hood, holding a rope around a black African-American's neck (the African-American is also Famine but in blackface make up) about to be lynched.[29] The album featured Spellgoth from Horna and Baptism fame as a session keyboardist, their second direct collaboration with Alexey Levkin from М8Л8ТХ who performed session additional vocals on the track "Songe viking", and the last participation of Ardraos who left the band after completing recording drums, he was replaced by Ukrainian drummer Baal shortly after. The album is presented as some kind of "split" between "traditional" Peste Noire music and their recent, more experimental side. The album was heavily panned by fans and critics, primarily for its experimentation with Hardcore rap and Trap music.

In April 2007 the Finnish label Northern Heritage,[30] owned by controversial Black Metal and right wing-associated artist Mikko Aspa, released PN's Lorraine Rehearsal 12" EP. The EP featured "rehearsal" songs recorded in Lorraine from August 2006.[31] A limited tape edition was also released on Roman Saenko (Hate Forest, Drudkh)'s label Night Birds Records in 2009.

At the same period, Famine, under his own name Valfunde, released a split 7" EP with Amesoeurs produced by De profundis éditions[8] in November 2007, containing unreleased songs, recorded in low quality on purpose.[32] Famine quickly dropped the idea of Valfunde as a side-project. Instead, Famine used the post-punk ideas he had for Valfunde on Peste Noire's third album Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor (2009).

A self-released double protape box Mors orbis terrarum containing all tracks from the early, sold out, demo tapes was released in 2007, and later re-released in a vinyl edition. A split 7" EP with controversial Finnish band Horna was also released in 2007 through Debemur Morti Productions.

La Sanie des siècles was repressed by De profundis éditions[8] and Transcendental Creations[33] on CD in August 2008. A vinyl version of the album was co-produced by De profundis éditions and Finnish label Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions in August 2009. The tape version was produced in 2013 by Night Birds Records in collaboration with Todestrieb records.

A tape version of Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor was released in March 2009 by the label Tour de Garde from Quebec.[34]

A limited vinyl version of Folkfuck Folie co-produced by Northern Heritage and De profundis éditions was released in April 2010. A limited tape edition of Folkfuck Folie was also released on Roman Saenko's Night Birds Records at the same time. On that same year Famine wrote the lyrics of one song for Canadian black metal band Akitsa's fourth album Au crépuscule de l'espérance.

Famine also collaborated with fellow French black metal band Sale Freux twice; doing guest vocals for their albums La mélancolie des pennes; released in December 2011, and L'exil; released in May 2012 by Famine's own label La mesnie Herlequin.

In April 2012, La mesnie Herlequin released Les démos, a double CD boxset containing all the Peste Noire demos (all the songs recorded between 2001 and 2005), including the Valfunde tracks.[35]

In August 2012, La mesnie Herlequin repressed Peste Noire's third album Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor on CD with new artwork.[36] The first pressing had been released by De profundis éditions in March 2009.

In September 2013, Famine was featured on Swedish band Shining's 8 ½ – Feberdrömmar I Vaket Tillstånd album. He sang on "Terres des Anonymes", a rerecording of "Fields of Faceless" (from "III – Angst – Självdestruktivitetens emissarie") with French lyrics.[37]

In July 2014 a collaborative split 12-inch LP was recorded with Parisian group Diapsiquir, titled Rats des Villes VS Rats des Champs, released by La mesnie Herlequin. Peste Noire took the famous poem "Le rat de ville et le rat des champs" by Jean de La Fontaine as its main inspiration behind the split's title.[38][4] in December of the same year, Famine appeared as a guest vocalist for then Peste Noire drummer Ardraos' band Sühnopfer second album Offertoire.

In 2015 Famine and Sün of NSBM band Aktion Totenkopf formed Vouïvre after a trip to Paris. The band also features former Peste Noire drummer Ardraos and keyboardist HGH also of Aktion Totenkopf and Elitism (also a NSBM band). They recorded the 12" EP Au gouffre which was released on 26 September 2017 through La mesnie Herlequin. It features guest vocals by Anthony Mignoni aka Xaphan of Seigneur Voland, another well known band from the French NSBM scene.

Famine was featured as a guest vocalist for 2 songs on the fourth М8Л8ТХ album Reconquista, which was released on 14 December 2018 by Militant Zone.

Throughout their first decade of existence, the band were known for their "pan-European Satanist" views which were based on Pan inspired devils as opposed to the "semetic Satan" of Judeo-Christianity, the band also strongly advocated for French nationalism and anarchism, as well as nostalgia for Medieval France and French culture and heritage, with a focus on the folklore and poetry of the country as well as promoting National Romanticism in their concepts and through their music, Famine himself once said that Peste Noire plays "Gothique", Grotesque and Archeofuturist black metal.

In later years the band began focusing on themes of urban and modern decadence, French countrysides, revolution, rebellion and hedonism while maintaining their Nationalist and Anarchist ideology along with racist white power and supremacist themes.

Famine characterizes himself and his project's ideology as a French national anarchist. Despite criticisms of being a national socialist, Famine denies the assertion and instead describes his beliefs as a fusion of nationalism and satanism.[39]

Peste Noire has become closely associated with the Ukrainian National Socialist scene and Famine is openly supportive of the Far-right group the Azov Battalion.[3]

Peste Noire lays claim to its underground status by choice, not by accident. The group has always signed with small independent labels which exist on the periphery of the commercial mainstream circuit; a circuit which is incompatible with the ideology of black metal, according to Famine. In 2011 Famine pushed this approach even further by creating his own label and studio, La mesnie Herlequin, located in La Chaise-Dieu, in order to have complete control over the production, recording and distribution of his work, and to dispense with all the middlemen that stood between its creation and sale.[40]

Peste Noire in Lyon's Hall on 23 June 2007

The band became infamous for their chaotic and wild concerts in their homeland of France and various underground events throughout Europe, one particular concert in Canada stirred conflict between the local Antifas and Far-right sympathizers of the band. However, Peste Noire's live activities became less frequent, primarily because of boycotts and cancellations; most notably the band was dropped from the 2017 edition of Blasfest in Bergen, Norway amidst protest from Norwegian Antifascist groups, one of their last and most noteworthy live performance in a major festival was on Steelfest 2017 in Finland.

Recently, Peste Noire has mostly played live on the neo-Nazi Asgardsrei festival, having performed three years in a row, from 2016 to 2018, there. P. N. have strong connections and projects with Militant Zone, the organizers of the festival.[41][42][3]

Current

• La sale Famine de Valfunde (Ludovic Van Alst) – guitars, lead vocals, bass guitar, épinette des Vosges, harmonica (2000–present)
• Baal – drums and percussion (2018–present)

Former

• Neige (Stéphane Paut) – drums (2001–2005), bass guitar (2005–2009), vocals (2006–2007), guitar (2007–2008),
• Argoth – bass guitar (2001–2002)
• Winterhalter (Jean Deflandre) – drums (2006–2008)
• Indria Saray – bass guitar (2006–2008, 2011-2012)
• Andy Julia – drums (2009)
• Audrey Sylvain – vocals, Hammond organ, piano (2009–2016)
• Vicomte Chtedire de Kroumpadis (A. M.) – drums (2011-2012)
• Ardraos (Florian Denis) – accordion, drums (2012–2018)

Live

• Snorr le Porc – guitars (2016–present)

Former live

• Ashcariot (Marc) – bass guitar (2016–2017)
• Björn – guitars (2016–2017)

Timeline

Studio albums

• La Sanie des siècles – Panégyrique de la dégénérescence (2006)
• Folkfuck Folie (2007)
• Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor (2009)
• L'Ordure à l'état Pur (2011)
• Peste Noire (2013)
• La Chaise-Dyable (2015)
• Peste Noire – Split – Peste Noire (2018)

EP

• Lorraine Rehearsal (vinyl) (2007)

Split albums

• Mémoire Païenne (split with Sombre Chemin) (2002)
• Horna/Peste Noire (split with Horna) (2007)
• Rats des Villes VS Rats des Champs (split with Diapsiquir) (2014)

Compilations

• Mors orbis terrarum (2007)
• Les démos (2012)

Demos

• Aryan Supremacy (2001)
• Macabre transcendance... (2002)
• Phalènes et pestilence – Salvatrice averse (2003)
• Phalènes et pestilence (2005)