Famine, the frontman of Peste Noire, is quite the controversial artist in the French black metal scene. Often, his interviews are more about controversy, polemics and black metal drama, rather than the music, as every "journalist" attempts to get an "edgy" quote and gather attention.
So the end result is that there are legions of Peste Noire interviews, but relatively few interviews about Peste Noire's MUSIC. And it's quite a shame, as they have one of the most solid post-2000 discographies you can find.
Of course, journalists want what sell... they don't really care about reviewing quality music. This is why garbage like Immortal's "reformation" album gets more PR than a masterpiece of sublime bestial black metal like Helgrind's "Sick Rulers of Heaven".
To say nothing about all the "retro" worship news releases... did you know Euronymous was friends with the cousin of Dimmu Borgir's founder? So important, right? We should make a make about it someday... "Lords of Chaos III: The Return of the Mall Goth". Anyway, I digress.
The Ultimate Peste Noire Interview with Famine
I a most recent interview with the seminal Morsay Magazine, Famine (Ludovic Faure) of Peste Noire - or, as they call themselves, Kommando Peste Noire (KPN) - opens up about his lengthy career, how he sees his music
(on how the band's founder would describe Peste Noire's music)Famine: In 2006 I thought I had invented the term hooligan black metal because I had never listened to Grand Belial's Key and I didn't know they had invented it before me. [...] We play dirty black metal, that's all I can say.
As many know, Peste Noire shared many members with another French black metal band... Alcest. This includes the bassist Argoth and also the drummer Neige. Famine, too, played in Alcest under the pseudonym "Aegnor" up until 2005.
But Alcest is a bit... too "atmospheric" maybe? Too "new age"? It's hard to imagine Famine playing in such a "modern metal" band... How did this all happen? And why did they part ways? Famine answers these questions too.
Famine: We lived in the same small town where nothing was happening, so we quickly fell into each other. At first, there was only Alcest. Neige was in a forest/Scandinavian black trip, and I wanted to sound French, dirty, raw, less sublime and more hateful.
Peste Noire has also faced many accusations of being NSBM (National Socialist Black Metal). We won't cover that in detail here, but you can read more about that in the book "Racist Metal" by Antoine Grand (another Frenchman).
Famine: Speaking about PESTE NOIRE, their only weapon against us is to say that we are NS. I have already explained why PN was not NS sensu stricto. Claiming that we are not NS was simply a matter of historical and ideological accuracy. People are really stuck within this NS / anti-NS dichotomy. I said that PN was not NS, but I never said that PN was anti-NS. PESTE NOIRE does not speak of Ad[*]lf H[*]tler, that's all. [...] And seriously, PN is too punk to be NS.
The "punk" aspects can certainly be heard on albums like "Folkfuck Folie", "L'Ordure à l'État Pur" and the self-titled "Peste Noire".
"Black Metallers in Western Europe are Domesticated Show-Offs..."
Famine is then asked where his fascination for eastern black metal comes from... he goes on a rant to criticise the state of modern Western black metal, whom he calls "egocentric show-offs" and "wannabe rock stars". This is something you might have heard from Ildjarn (in even more crude terms, read the interview) and many black metallers think the same way, but aren't always as confrontational as KPN's leader.
Famine: I am not a psychologist, but I would say that Black Metallers in Western Europe and North America are not as tough due to the overall "bourgeoisification" and domestication. They are more nihilistic because of the spirit of extreme liberalism that has raged in these lands for much longer than in Eastern Europe. Here in France, many metalheads are egocentric shows-offs, living with their moms and having an easy life. The Western Europe is known for higher living standards, materialism, vulgar hedonism, lower birth rates, and the Emperor syndrome - when the only child in the family gets all the attention, no surprise we see so many selfish cowards out there. Every little sh[*]t, mollycoddled by his parents, thinks he's a god and has no spirit of sacrifice whatsoever, no sense of community ethics. They will never take any risk. Political correctness is in a way their comfort zone.
I wonder if the members of Emperor suffer from the "Emperor syndrome"? It would make sense, seeing some of the comments made by Ihsahn in recent years.
Famine then praises the eastern black metal scene, which he sees as the diametrical opposite of the decant "juvenile" Western black metal posers.
Famine: Slavs do not go for simple "Rock star" provocations, as the Necrobutcher did when posing in front of a Nazi flag, or DARKTHRONE when claiming "Norsk Arisk Black Metal" and not willing to stand for it afterwards. It seems to me that while the Western BM scene remains precisely in the juvenile, superficial provocation (H[*]tler being the new Satan, calling themselves NS just to shock the public, etc.).
Finally, the question everyone has been waiting for... why did Famine choose to exile himself in Ukraine (a war torn country!)? It sort of mirrors Varg Vikernes of Burzum moving to rural France in 2011, in a somewhat opposite way.
Famine: And knowing that I am on a pan-European and not a chauvinist line, I do not see the problem [of living in Ukraine] that some narrow-minded people see in it. Never for a single second in Ukraine did I feel like a foreigner. What French person can say that he has never felt like a foreigner in France?
Sadly, there was no mention of Famine's side projects such as Vouïvre and such. Still, I recommend anyone serious about black metal listen to "Folkfuck Folie". Sure, it has a few grindcore/war metal elements (sort of like a medieval version of Warkvlt), but it's definitively worth your time. I know... "Folkfuck Folie" is the one Peste Noire album Famine hates, and wishes he never released... but still, it's the one I always recommend! It's that good!
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