Peste Noire is a black metal band from Avignon, France. It was founded by La sale Famine de Valfunde in 2000. La sale Famine has been the main member and creative force behind Peste Noire since its inception, and, to date, all songs (lyrics, music and solos) were written by La sale Famine (except "La Césarienne" on Folkfuck Folie and various piano/organ interludes on Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor). The band offers a music which is in turn epic and melodic, sometimes more turbulent and aggressive, passionate and sorrowful and at times even openly sardonic. It always retains some degree of insanity and is generally raw, filthy and evocative of the atmosphere developed in France d'oïl in the Middle Ages. The band is sometimes referred to as P.N. or K.P.N (Kommando Peste Noire).

Peste Noire was born in the mind of one La sale Famine de Valfunde (i.e « The filthy Famine of Valfunde ») who wrote all songs (except one), solos, lyrics (except when taken from poets) and imagined the whole concept of Peste Noire since its creation. The other members aren't/have never been involved in the song-writing process but are/were always used as session musicians (Neige included) playing the music written by Famine.

Famine started Peste Noire alone in 2000. As he wasn't able to play drums and refused to use a drum machine, Famine quickly felt the need to find a session drummer for his newly founded one-man band of « vieil e vil black metal franceis »[3] (i.e « old and vile French black metal »). At the time, Famine was helped by a young musician who called himself Neige (French word for « snow ») who agreed to be a session drummer only on Peste Noire's demos. Argoth, a session bass player, also helped up to the 2002 « Macabre Transcendance... » demo. Famine (then known as Aegnor/Feu Cruel) would also be the lead guitarist on Neige's Alcest's first demo tape « Tristesse Hivernale » released on 2001 through Drakkar Productions in which Famine wrote the main riff of the song « La forêt de Cristal ». Peste Noire released three demos called « Aryan Supremacy » (2001), « Macabre Transcendance... » (2002) and « Phalènes and Pestilence - Salvatrice averse » (2003) and one split demo tape with Sombre Chemin in their first four years of existence. All demos were copied one by one on audio cassettes, the traditional media for demos in the black metal genre.

In 2006, Famine hired new members Winterhalter (drums) and Indria (bass) for them to play on Peste Noire's first studio album and to expand Famine’s music. They completed what Famine began to call « Kommando Peste Noire ».[2] At the time, Famine had fired Neige from the band and P.N. was a three-piece band (Famine, Winterhalter, Indria) when the debut album La Sanie des siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence was recorded and produced in August 2006 by French label De profundis éditions. La Sanie des siècles (which roughly translates as « The sanies of the centuries - Ode to degeneration », « sanies » being « a thin greenish foul-smelling discharge from a wound, ulcer, etc., containing pus and blood » according to the Collins English Dictionary ) is basically a compilation of the demo tracks previously written/recorded by Famine on his own equipment re-recorded in Rosenkrantz studio (Abigail, Celestia, Mortifera). Neige came as a guest at the end of the recording sessions and made a vocal feature on « Dueil Angoisseus » (studio version). « Nous sommes fanés » (the introduction track) and « Des médecins malades et des saints séquestrés », the bonus track on the album, were old demo tracks and it featured Famine (guitars, bass guitar, vocals) and Neige (session drums). Despite what several labels claim in order to sell Peste Noire to the masses, Neige doesn't play guitar, bass or drums on La Sanie des siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence and Famine put things straight when he stated: « The most absurd idea spread by idiots is that La Sanie des siècles is better because Neige was more involved in its recording and production, yet the fact is that the album was recorded without Neige, in 2005, when I had kicked him out of the band. [...] To claim that Neige is an important figure in PN is the same as saying that the person who plays the triangle in SOPOR AETERNUS AND THE ENSEMBLE OF SHADOWS is the main man in SOPOR », he added. La Sanie des siècles was repressed a second time by De profundis éditions and Transcendental Creations[8] as cd in August 2008. A vinyl version of La Sanie des siècles co-produced by De profundis éditions and Finnish label Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions was also released in August 2009.
On April 2007, the Finnish label Northern Heritage would release the « Lorraine Rehearsal » 12" EP including the legend « Hooligan Black Metal » and featuring four « rehearsal » songs recorded in Lorraine from August 2006. The B-side is the second version (20 minutes 10 s. long) of the epic track « Phalènes Et Pestilence », composed by Famine in 2005 and then recorded on his own recording equipment. (A tape version of the « Lorraine Rehearsal » was also released on Roman Saenko (Hate Forest, Drudkh)'s label Night Birds Records. It was limited to 300 hand-numbered copies). For the first time P.N. became a four-piece band (still with Winterhalter (drums) and Indria (bass), and Neige (second guitar on the « Lorraine Rehearsal ») being reintegrated) fit for concerts. On June 3, 2007, Peste Noire played their first concert in Toulouse, France.

De profundis éditions produced Peste Noire's second album Folkfuck Folie released in June 2007. Folkfuck Folie features studio versions of the four « rehearsal » tracks from the « Lorraine Rehearsal ». This album whose lyrics sometimes seem on the verge of autobiography mainly deals with apocalyptic themes, the final triumph of the body over the torments of the mind, primal barbarity, wartime poetry, the spreading of sexually transmitted diseases, or mental disorder which is symbolized by the radio sample of the demented poet Antonin Artaud used as an introduction to the track « Folkfuck Folie ». Half of the lyrics were written by Famine and he took the other half from various French authors mainly from the medieval period such as Guillaume de Machaut or Gautier de Coincy to illustrate the parallel between medieval and modern apocalypse he had started to evoke with La Sanie des siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence's lyrics . This second album was described as « Folklore d’égout » [10] (« Folklore from the sewers ») by Famine and he ironically says that his goal was « to create the ugliest and most irritating sound possible, in order make the album unlistenable after having heard two songs. You have to be mentally unstable to go through the entire album » he added . While Neige’s input on La Sanie des siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence was non-existent, on Folkfuck Folie he composed for the first and last time a track for Peste Noire: the thrashy oddity « La Césarienne », the lyrics of which are a poem written by Famine. Neige « never once played a single guitar riff except those on « La Césarienne », which was the only song he ever wrote for PN and will ever have written » Famine stated. By the way, in the studio sessions, Neige only played the second guitar on this track and he doesn't play any other guitar part on Folkfuck Folie. Famine, who wrote all the other tracks on Folkfuck Folie, remains the mastermind and exclusive guitarist and songwriter behind Peste Noire. A limited vinyl version co-produced by Northern Heritage and De profundis éditions was released in April 2010. It includes a long 2007 interview answered by Famine.

At the same period, Famine worked on two more songs called « Sérénade » and « Hôpital », a blend of folkish Black metal and post-punk with electronic beats featuring Sainte Audrey as guest vocalist. He released these songs under his own name Valfunde in a split 7" EP with Amesoeurs produced by De profundis éditions [11] in November 2007. In the liner notes it says ironically: « Recorded and mixed by Famine on outdated equipment with low-priced microphones ». Famine quickly dropped the idea of Valfunde which wasn't his solo project but rather a short-lived side-project using electronic beats. Instead Famine used the post-punk ideas he had for Valfunde in Peste Noire's third album Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor (2009).

Also released in 2007 was a self-released double protape box Mors orbis terrarum containing all Peste Noire's demo tracks from the sold out demo tapes, and also a split 7" EP with Finnish black metal band Horna which contained the new track « Paysage Mauvais ». The Mors orbis terrarum compilation was re-released as vinyl by Debemur Morti Productions in September 2008 (This vinyl release includes all the demos featured on the tape box, except the very raw « Aryan supremacy » demo and the second demo version of « Phalènes et pestilence » which was on the B side of the « Lorraine Rehearsal » vinyl released by Northern Heritage in 2007).

In addition to their first concert in Toulouse on June 3, 2007, Kommando Peste Noire also played concerts in Lyon on June 23, 2007 and Bordeaux on December 16, 2007 with Mayhem. On January 19, 2008, Peste Noire played a concert in Oslo, Norway (at Betong) and one in Boismont on July 18, 2008. In August 2008, they also made a 13-date tour called « Les Treizes Nuits de la Peste » with Akitsa in Quebec, the French-speaking part of Canada, known as New France prior to the conquest of the area by the English during the Seven Years War. The band refused to play in the USA. It was the first time a French metal band had ever toured Quebec.

In March 2009, De profundis éditions released Peste Noire's third album Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor (i.e « Ballad against the enemies of France ») with a new line-up Famine had chosen consisting of a new drummer (A. from (Darvulia)) and a new bass player (Ragondin) replacing Neige, Winterhalter and Indria.This album, whose main theme is based on the nostalgia for medieval France through traditional military songs or royal chants, is soundwise reminiscent of P.N. demos but the style evolved to a mix of Black metal and folk and crust, hard rock rhythms, piano / Hammond organ interludes by Sainte Audrey-Yolande de la Molteverge and acoustic guitars. Famine characterized this unique style as « Boyscout satanism », in a very typically French fashion. P.N. also adapted François Villon's song « Ballade contre les ennemis de la France » into a Black metal version entitled « Ballade cuntre les anemis de la France » for this album. Unlike the previous two albums which had been recorded in the Rosenkrantz studios, the Black metal tracks' music in Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor was recorded by Famine on his own recording equipment, like Peste Noire's demos.

A tape version of Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor was released in March 2009 anonymously. It was distributed by the label Tour de Garde from Quebec . Another tape version meant for Eastern Europe was also released on Roman Saenko (Hate Forest, Drudkh)'s label Night Birds Records.
[edit] Band concept

One of PN's leitmotifs is that of Satanism (not any type of Satanism though as PN preaches the worship of Indoeuropean Satans or devils inspired by Pan, not the monotheistic Jewish cult of the semitic Satan) as is common for bands in the Black Metal genre but PN certainly can't be reduced to that.

Even if Famine's music is characteristized by anarchic disdain and/or aristocratic sarcasm (Famine acknowledged the underlying influence of Pieter Bruegel the Elder and François Rabelais in Peste Noire's music ), giving it its distinctive voice, Famine's vision of Black Metal is also based on nationalism [19] and Peste Noire is proud of French cultural heritage, especially medieval France.[1] Famine took some lyrics written in Old French from medieval French writers such as François Villon (for the song « Ballade cuntre les anemis de la France »), Christine de Pisan (for the song « Dueil Angoisseus ») and Guillaume de Machaut (for « Amour ne m'amoit ne je li ») and from modern writers, such as Charles Baudelaire (« Le mort joyeux » and « Spleen »), Paul Verlaine (« Soleils couchants »), Tristan Corbière (« Paysage mauvais »), and Robert Brasillach (« Psaume IV »).

They have been suspected of being a national-socialist band but Famine said they were French nationalists: « I am a nationalist, not a socialist... My two nations are : France d’Oïl (i.e Northern medieval France where langues d'oïl were spoken) and Hell ». On Ballade cuntre lo Anemi francor's digipack, Famine also stated that « Peste Noire is a nationalistic satanic band from France, not from Germany. Peste Noire reject any links with nazi imperialism, which is essentially an enemy of French culture for which PN fight. Let it be understood one day... » Famine further explained why Peste Noire’s concept is based on nationalism when he stated:

« Black Metal is the musical memory of our bloodthirsty ancestors of blood, it is the marriage of Tradition, of old racial patrimony with fanaticism, with the rage and the rashness of a youth now lost. It is a CHTHONIC religion: a cult of the EARTH and a return to it, therefore a nationalism; a cult of what is BELOW the earth: Hell — the adjective “chthonic” applies to the Infernal gods as well. BM is a fundamentalism, a music with integrity (from latin integer, complete) which helps me to remain complete in a dying world, amidst a people in decay, unworthy of its blood. It is the apology of the dark european past. It is a psychosis which helps us to flee a reality we cannot tolerate anymore. »

Exposure

Famine has always rejected the exposure of his music on the internet. There has never been any official P.N. website, nor any official P.N. myspace page.Several « fan myspace pages » currently exist (myspace.com/pestenoire, myspace.com/pestenoiremetal and others) but they are in no way official as they go against Famine’s vision of BM. In August 2009, Famine stated in Diabolical Conquest webzine :

« The Internet is what has drawn Black Metal to the masses, a new age where everything is accessible to all types of fools at any time of the day, a new era where misanthropes gather at online communities wanting to make as many friends as possible. The occult, underground and elitist movement which the BLACK LEGIONS embodied is no longer possible: some idiot will inevitably put demo tapes on the Internet... [...] When I hear how these people managed to ruin the sound of my songs by putting them on myspace or youtube, I think I'd rather die than be the composer of those songs. If I were some random guy who'd find out about PESTE NOIRE through the sound files found on the Internet, I'd have a good laugh and I'd stop listening to the music immediately. ON BEHALF OF MY BAND, I DEMAND THAT ALL INDIVIDUALS WHO CREATED PESTE NOIRE MYSPACE PAGES DELETE THESE PAGES IMMEDIATELY; MY MUSIC IS NOT MEANT TO BE LISTENED TO ON A COMPUTER. »

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peste_Noire