Despite a French-language name, Le Chant Noir hail from Brazil. The trio–featuring multi-instrumentalist Leonardo D. Pagani, bassist/guitarist Mantus, and vocalist Kaiaphas (ex-Ancient)–are undoubtedly Francophiles, but musically Le Chant Noir haunt the same mystical yet melodic realms (occupied at one point) by Gehenna (Norway), Opera IX (Italy), and Diabolical Masquerade (Sweden). Indeed, this is melodic/symphonic black metal, of the gothic not the orchestral variety. What sounds like an homage to mid-’90s European black metal is actually an extension of it, decades later yet moderately upgraded via improved musicianship and production techniques.
Throughout Le Chant Noir’s new album, La Société Satanique des Poètes Morts, they pick up on strings occult, with keyboards and melodies guiding into (and out of) the proverbial black metal fog. This is the same endless string that Cradle of Filth picked up on as they ventured out of demo form and into Decibel Hall of Fame album, The Principle of Evil Made Flesh. Whereas most of Le Chant Noir’s thrust is in sub-blastbeat tempi, there are many points where they slow down, doom out, as if possessed by the ghosts of My Dying Bride and long-standing countrymen Mythological Cold Towers. Tracks like “Nuit de l’enfer,” “Le vampire,” and “La danse macabre” hover ghastly between the fastest death and the coldest funeral.
Say Le Chant Noir: “The title, La Société Satanique des Poètes Morts, is a sort of pun on The Dead Poets Society. The Satanic Dead Poets Society. I used this title because most of the lyrics on this album are adaptations of poems and works from French poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, and others. There was a very strong interest in Satanism, vampirism, and the occult in France, especially in the 19th century. That is the concept of this album. Dark french cabaret atmosphere.”
With corrupted croissants and revolting Reblochon, Le Chant Noir hereby offer via a crumbling statue of Christ the Redeemer the full album stream of La Société Satanique des Poètes Morts. Nom de dieu de merde…
