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Features - Column
 Dethroned Emperor #10 Column by Josh Haun | August 25th, 2008
Every would-be music journalist has their own personal list of "dream interviews". Between my time spent toiling away at my college newspaper to my current post as columnist here at SF, I've been lucky enough to be able to check a few of those artists off my list. From the interrogation of Averse Sefira that graced the innaugural edition of Dethroned Emperor to a lengthy phone interview with Earth's Dylan Carlson that was sadly never published, I've been blessed with some wonderful opportunities to correspond and converse with truly captivating artists.
Enter Nuit Noire. I first discovered this French act around 2006, tracking down a copy of the band's debut full-length, Lunar Deflagration at the recommendation of a fellow black metal fan at college. I was blown away by the band's off kilter fusion of black metal and punk rock, infused as it was with deranged, other-wordly pop sensibility that I am to this day at a loss to fully explain. Craving more of this uniquely odd band, I managed to hunt down their sophmore effort Infantile Epieglery as well as a split 7" with the equally bizarre Circle of Ouroborus.
Addicted to the by turns fierce/melancholic/whimsical sounds produced by this eccentric artist, I bided my time waiting hungrily for more until finally a small Japanese label called Armageddon Records released Fantomatic Plenitude in 2007, although I was not able to secure a copy until earlier this year. Consisting of nine brand new cuts of the band's patented "blasting faerical punk" and nine pristinely recorded live tracks, the disc makes a great overview of what Nuit Noire is all about, punk rock's driving aggression mixed with black metal's inherent darkness and melancholy, still further obscured by uninhibited flights of fancy.
Since I began Dethroned Emperor, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Tenebras immediately sprang to mind as someone I desperately wanted to get in contact with. I had only ever read a handful of interviews with the Nuit Noire mastermind, making me absolutely determined to nail him down for an in-depth interrogation. So, I approached Tenebras via that most dreaded dungeon of social networking known as myspace, not entirely sure what to expect of the man behind songs such as "Magical Blast", "Faeries Fu-- Humans" and "Fantomatic Plenitude". I was happy to find Tenebras extremely friendly, as well as excited to talk about the past, present and future of Nuit Noire. The much to my delight, following exchange transpired via e-mail.
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Sonic Frontiers: Nuit Noire released its first demo in1998. For readers that might not be familiar, please give a little background on how the band got started.
Tenebras: In summer 1997, during a stroll in a wood by night, i had a flash telling me i had to put those fantastic nocturnal visions and feelings into music. A few later i purchased some equipment and proposed to my brother Akhron to become a drummer, and we began to rehearse in december. Then 6 demo tapes were recorded from 1998 to 2001 (the 3 last ones were released on Drakkar Productions), followed by a vinyl ep in 2002. We recorded an album in summer 2003, and the first era of the band stops here, sequel in the next question...
SF: The band started out with a more traditional black metal sound early on, before evolving into "blasting faerical punk" over the last few years. What caused this change in musical style?
Tenebras: So, during the recording of this album in summer 2003, my heart led me to change the way of singing with something weirder and crazier, sort of punky new wave vocals. Akhron didn't agree with it and he left the band, letting the "Inner Light" album unachieved. So i began to record all alone as i am also a drummer, with those strange vocals that some hate and some like. To sing like that wasn't something really thought and calculated, it just was something i wanted to do, without any particular reason, and i think an artist should always follow his intuition without thinking.
SF: On the surface, punk rock and black metal seem like total opposites. What if any common ground do you think exists between the two styles? Which style do you feel closer to?
Tenebras: Black metal is the most paradoxal and difficult-to-define music style ever. Venom played a music including Mötörhead's heaviness and a dark atmosphere with non-serious satanic topics, and they called their first album "Black Metal". Some bands arrived a bit later doing something even darker but they were not telling themselves "we are playing black metal", they were considered as extreme trash/death metal bands, simply. It is Euronymous, finally, who put the basis of what black metal is, using the name of the first Venom's album. But during all this "genesis" of black metal, numberless punk/rock/crust bands were influenced by this "post-era" of black metal, and many of them sound very near from Bathory/Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, the difference can be seen in the way of dressing and the lyrics'topics. The "black metal bands" around 1990 got into an even darker sounding with weirder guitar chords and harsh vocals, a scene more or less led by Euronymous. Then, all along the years, many bands have been influenced by those bands, some repeating the same thing, some including new elements.
Honestly, among all those punk rock and black metal bands, i don't really know where to classify Nuit Noire. Our live shows are appreciated the same by punk rock/alternative and black metal audiences, but the topics and the aura can't fit to any of these scene. So i don't know...
SF: At times, Nuit Noire's music has a very whimsical, almost childlike vibe to it. What inspires this unique approach?
Tenebras: What inspires this? I don't know, it is my way of being, i have kept my child's innocence and never really got into the adult's world. The depths of my mind are far away from earth, like children's mind are, and so you can feel it in my music and lyrics, as Nuit Noire is the pure reflect of the deepest me.
SF: Explain your obsession with faeries. Why have they become so important to the overall concept and lyrics of Nuit Noire? What do they represent?
Tenebras: Faeries, for me, are like the "Force" in Star Wars or the "Cosmo" in Saint Seiya. Believing in them brings me a positive and pure energy, they are my "Force" or my "Cosmo", they are hidden in the night and only the pure hearted ones can perceive them, i let you think about this metaphor...
SF: One of the most unique aspects of Nuit Noire's sound are your vocals and I know it was a disagreement over this that caused your brother to leave the band. How did you come to adopt your current style of singing? What is it influenced by?
Tenebras: As i said in the question number 2, i can't really tell what happened for i wanted to include those vocals in my music, but what is sure is that i can live far much better my lyrics by singing this way.
SF: Of course, your guitar playing is also a big part of Nuit Noire's unique atmosphere. Are you self-taught? What is your equipment setup?
Tenebras: I am self-taught and i began to play guitar at the age of 18, with the only purpose of making the music of Nuit Noire with this instrument. It is a cheap Jackson guitar and I have Marshall Valvestate transistor amplifiers. My Boss pedals are extremely important in my sound chain, i have a "Noise Suppressor", a "Metal Zone" with a very weird equalization setting, a "Super Shifter", and a "Digital Delay" bringing a lot of echoes. The reverb knob of my amp is usually pushed to 10. I have the same equipment since the beginning, i just added the two last pedals along the years.
SF: Your latest release, Fantomatic Plenitude, consists of 9 studio tracks and 9 live tracks. How did this recording come about? How were the live tracks recorded? They sound amazing.
Tenebras: We played at the "Tapette Fest" in june 2006, the sound engineers of this festival are among the best ones in the world to my point of view, even an ugly unknown punk band sounds like the Stooges on stage there, all this without soundchecks, it is really amazing! And in 2006 they recorded all the bands with a digital recorder linked track by track to the mixing console. Then they mixed everything in their studio and sent it to the bands who played. When we received it i just told to myself "We must release it!" and at the same time Armageddon Records from Japan wrote me to tell they wanted to release something from Nuit Noire, whatever it is. And then, after thinking a lot, this idea to record brand-new studio tracks to be put together with this live recording came to me, and i did it. As they weren't any new song on the live, the addition of those new studio tracks gives something really interesting.
SF: I know Emilie contributes additional vocals on your last few recordings, but otherwise you record everything yourself. Why do you take this solitary approach instead of putting together a full band?
Tenebras: Before Nuit Noire i had a black metal band called Grimoria, and i learnt from it that having too much people in a band reduces your liberty and creativity, especially when everyone in the band is strong-minded and has his own vision. In Nuit Noire i didn't want te reproduce this and wanted total liberty, this way i can put on tape and on stage all my craziness and no one is here to prevent me from anything.
SF: Do you associate at all with the French black metal scene? What are your thoughts on it? It seems like the country has gained a lot of notoriety over the years for bands ranging from Deathspell Omega and Celestia to Ameseours.
Tenebras: I think we have one of the best "black metal scene" in the world here. Some bands are really crappy but some are really amazing and weird, with a very sick and personal approach in their music. But Nuit Noire is very unknown in the black metal scene here. We are mostly invited to play shows by punk/alternative organizations, not black metal (and even just metal) ones. It is in foreign countries that black metallers are interested with Nuit Noire.
SF: What's next for Nuit Noire? When can we expect a new full length release?
Tenebras: Last month i recorded a rough guitar/voice demo with the 12 songs of the next album, and i should transmit it to Akhron in a few days because it is him who will record the drums. He told me just after christmas 2007 that he wanted to record the next Nuit Noire album with me. When he left the band in 2003, i promised him that he could return in the band if he would finally come to like my vocals, and i kept my promise. He took part at the "10 years anniverfairy show" in april 2008 and playing with him again was mesmerizing, i hope we can record this album soon. Besides this, the 2-cd compilation with all the 6 official demo tapes is on the way, i hope it will be released this year. Also we were proposed to play at the "Dunkelheit Festival" late august 2008 in Czech Republic but i really don't know if we will be able to travel until there, let's see...
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Nuit Noire's last official release was 2007's Fantomatic Plenitude. You can listen to the tracks "Les Fées Volent Dans La Nuit" and "Poussière D'étoiles" as well as several songs from other releases at the band's official myspace. The double disc demos compilation scheduled for release this year via Todestrieb records is still forthcoming.
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 Self-titled debut from KRALLICE serves up a premium dose of USBM
In keeping with the black metal theme of this installment, I, have to talk about another absolutely devastating recording from the incomparable Profound Lore Records. That release is the self-titled debut offering from NYC-based black metallers Krallice. Yes, they feature members of Orthrelm and Behold… The Arctopus. Yes, they sound an awful lot like the oft-lamented Weakling. But what those two descriptive sentences fail to tell you is just how stellar this release truly is. In a time when American black metal is really coming into it's own, Krallice have emerged a fully formed, utterly compelling entity on their innaugural album, no small feat, even for a band who's members possess such impressive resumes.
Consisting of six lengthy, hypnotic tracks, Krallice is at once an exercise in black metal orthodoxy and a subtle deviation from the status quo. The musicianship on display is beyond superb, with the freezing, angular guitarwork of Mick Barr (Orthrelm, Octis, etc) and Colin Marston (Behold.. The Arctopus, Dysrhythmia, Byla) stealing the show throughout the album's hour-long duration. The vertigo-inducing riffage of songs such as "Cnestorial" and "Forgiveness in Rot" is both epic and urgent, infusing the album with equal parts grim grandeur and raw technicality.
Although I've never really gotten into Mick Barr's myriad musical projects (aside from the uber-gnarly Shred Earthship collab with Hella's Zach Hill), the guitarist proves himself just as capable of creating fluid, compelling black metal compositions as he is doling out shards of abstract experimentalism. In fact, what might be the most impressive aspect of Krallice is how comfortable and confident the band sounds, as if they'd been writing/playing/recording together for years. The album is as much a testament to the individual member's versatility as it is to the maturation of American black metal.
While the American black metal scene has produced no shortage of talented bands in the past decade, from Nachtmystium and Wolves in the Throne Room to Averse Sefira and Grand Belial's Key, it has taken time to really establish itself as its own unique animal. Krallice, along with Nachtmystium's Assassins and last year's stellar Two Hunters from Wolves in the Throne Room, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that USBM has finally arrived.
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Bands or labels interested in news, interviews, or reviews for future installments of Dethroned Emperor, please get in touch: jhaun@sonicfrontiers.net.
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