Hacride fans have been waiting nearly four years for this French quartet to release details of the follow-up to their brilliant Lazerus album. And fortune favours the patient by the looks of it, as Back To Where You’ve Never Been looks set to be absolutely killer if ‘Overcome‘, which you can listen to here courtesy of MetalSucks, is anything to go by.
It’s easy to overlook, but when you stop and think of all the excellent forward-thinking metal that comes to us from France, it’s astounding. Some of the best bands to break in the last decade have been French, including Gojira, Gorod (above), Hacride, Benighted, and many more. Filmmaker Richard Delaume is highlighting this surging metal scene in his documentary, Metalbanger: The Art Of Violence, as he seeks to explain the artistic elements behind such brutal music. Here’s a synopsis from the director:
Metal, derived from Hard-Rock and Heavy-Metal, is a music labelled as violent. It is also a genre of music listened to worldwide. Several documentaries have focused on the fans of Metal, but the musicians have only rarely been described. None of the films have explored the reasons that push artists to express their emotions through this controversial music genre, regrettably viewed in clichés and as an amalgam.
Metal is usually criticized for endorsing machismo and violent behaviour, for pushing people to suicide, or murder to towards alternative cultures. And the clichés on Metal amateurs are easy shortcuts: “they are stupid and are bad musicians.” I wish to tackle these clichés differently in this documentary…
Sounds interesting enough, but it needs funding for it to be available. The project is seeking backers in the Kickstarter-like crowd-sourcing site KissKissBankBank. Hopefully this documentary gets made, as it sounds very promising. You can check out a trailer for the film below.
Metalbanger, l’art de la violence. Français //english subs. from Richard Delaume on Vimeo.
- JR
French metal is definitely a force to be reckoned with these days, new and veteran bands seem to have come out of the woodwork like there’s no tomorrow over the last few years and you only have to look at their alumni to see that there’s some heavy hitters in there. Trepalium, for example, have been pumping out swaggered and juddering death metal groove and all out jazzy weirdness since the turn of the century, producing some real hidden gems that seemed to get unfortunately lost in the tide when the floodgates opened. However, now is your chance to get acquainted with the band, as they release their new album H.N.P (an abbreviation of Heic Noenum Pax, which roughly translates from Latin to ‘here is no peace’) on the 8th of June through Seasons Of Mist. The above track ‘Insane Architect‘ will give you a good idea of the base sound of the band, lying somewhere between Pantera, early Daath and Hacride, but they’re another band that tend to shuffle into a lot of strange places over the course of an album. So definitely something to keep an eye on — also, after the jump you can listen to a cover of Pantera‘s ‘I’m Broken‘ which I can only assume is a bonus track for the album.
Original photo by Anthony Dubois.
Believe it or not, France is steadily becoming a beacon for excellent metal, as evidenced by this year’s stellar debut releases from Uneven Structure and Betraying The Martyrs, the latter of which are currently embarking on their first ever tour in America, supporting Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, and Carnifex [show review here]. I caught up with Betraying the Martyrs bassist Valentin Hauser for an exclusive interview in which he discusses the origin of the band’s name and the troubles of getting a European band into America. I also make a fool of myself by pronouncing his name wrong. Luckily, Valentin is a great sport and a friendly dude!
Alright, so for everyone who doesn’t know, who are you and what do you do?
I am Valentin and I play bass for Betraying the Martyrs.
Oh! “Valentine!” I’ve been pronouncing it like “Valenteen” this whole time! [laughs]
Yeah, in French, “Valenteen” is a name for a girl…
Oh!
So please, don’t do so! [laughs]
I apologize! I am very American…
No problem!
