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It’s interesting how hardcore punk colonized sludge/doom metal, starting with Neurosis. Then came Isis, Old Man Gloom, and the late-’90s Boston/Hydra Head/Deathwish, Inc. scene. The result was bands that sound metal, but that probably have short hair. Europe got this bug hard — see Cult of Luna, Callisto, Knut, Burst, The Ocean, and so on. French bands of this ilk, like Year of No Light and Aussitôt Mort (reviewed here and here), seem to have a certain elegance. They’re requisitely downtuned, but aren’t afraid of melody.
There Will Be Women to Please and Flesh to Spit
Celeste stand out from their French compatriots by being hard as nails. Misanthrope(s) (Denovali, 2009) has hot mastering, which surprisingly benefits the material. The sound is dense and punishing. It befits the bleak riffs and scathing vocals, which suggest black metal with steel armor plates. The unforgiving presentation is a refreshing change from NeurIsis bands that muck about with “psychedelic” nonsense. Adding to the opacity are French song titles and lyrics printed in a monolithic block. The one-sheet I got had translated song titles, which likely went through Babel Fish: “As to Delude the Looks and the Smell of Corpse,” “Touching This Gap Fan My Fascination.” Huh? Pardon the French, enjoy the beating.
Misanthrope(s) is available as a free download from the band here. It also comes on CD and double gatefold vinyl from the sources below. I am giving away a copy of the CD. For a chance to win, email invisibleoranges at gmail dot com by midnight EST, Thursday, August 6 with the subject header “Misanthropic Generation” and your full name and address. I will choose a winner randomly.
Buy:
Interpunk (2xLP)
Celeste (CD, 2xLP)
Relapse (CD, 2xLP)
Robotic Empire (2xLP)
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Actually,I'd say that Black Flag was the first time hardcore went sludge. But yeah, Neurosis were probably the first to turn that into a genre.
Nice to see Knut mentioned. They're one of those bands I always hoped would get bigger, but never touring the U.S. (I saw them at CBGB on a rare trip over here) hurt them, I think.
Another winner! I hear a lot of '90s crust-metal in this actually… I know any number of bands from Canada or Germany in the late 90s that would have killed to put out an album that sounds like this one.
This band rules. Their previous effort Pessimiste(s) is even better. I can't quantify what the difference is, but the songs hit me a lot more. I'm so glad they finally got some US distribution.
I saw three times already (yep, I'm french) and each times they played they asked to play without any lights so the only thing you can see on stage is a bunch of little red lights which they put on themselves. It's really impressive and gives a dangerous tone to their performance which is completly expected given the song titles.
OK, I feel like a dunce, but can someone tell me what "hot mastering" means? I've heard the term used a lot, but don't know what it means.
Lou – "Hot mastering" refers to the over-use of compression to make albums louder. Many people have written about this. See the Wikipedia entry:
Loudness War
And these articles:
The Death of High Fidelity
Over the Limit (article using Rush examples)
Finally some fucking US love for this band. I downloaded their previous album "Nihilistes" (also off Denovali) and was blown away.
Found out about them actually from the InvisOr links to Aussitot Mort last year. That French scene has some really sick bands that nobody has heard of.
Production on this new album sounds a lot better than previous albums.