Peste Noire

Peste Noire
Peste Noire at Betong (Oslo, Norway) on 19 January 2008.
Background information
Origin	Avignon, France
Genres	Black metal
Years active	2000 – present
Labels	La mesnie Herlequin
Associated acts	Valfunde, Alcest
Members	La sale Famine de Valfunde Ardraos Sainte Audrey-Yolande de la Molteverge
Past members	Argoth Neige Winterhalter Andy Julia Ragondin Indria

Peste Noire, taking their name from the Black Plague, is a black metal band from La Chaise-Dieu, France. It was formed by La sale Famine de Valfunde in 2000. Their music utilises standard black metal elements mixed with more traditional Gallic instrumentation. The band is sometimes referred to as P.N. or K.P.N (Kommando Peste Noire). According to Famine, they play "National Satanist Black Metal".

Peste Noire was created by La sale Famine de Valfunde (i.e. "The filthy Famine of Valfunde") in Avignon in 2000, initially under the name Dor Daedeloth. Neige (Alcest), who played in the band's first eight years of existence, joined him on drums. Together they crafted four demos and one split demo tape. Argoth, a bass player also member of early Alcest fame, helped up to the 2002 "Mémoire Païenne" split.

In 2006, Famine hired new members Winterhalter (drums) and Indria (bass). They completed what Famine began to call "Kommando Peste Noire". At the time, Famine had fired Neige from the band and P.N. was a three-piece when the debut La Sanie des siècles - Panégyrique de la dégénérescence was produced by French label De profundis éditions in August 2006. The music on their first effort was mostly melodic and sorrowful, turning at times towards a more aggressive and chaotic sound within lengthy and elaborate song structures. With hymns such as "Dueil Angoisseus", "Spleen", or "Le Mort Joyeux", the record caused a stir in the underground black metal scene. It helped establish the band on an international level.

De profundis éditions produced Peste Noire's second album Folkfuck Folie, released in June 2007. It featured studio versions of the four "rehearsal" tracks from the "Lorraine Rehearsal" and Famine described it as "Folklore d’égout" ("Folklore from the sewers"). It was recorded on a tape machine, in the same way punks produced their albums in the 80s, thereby showing the band's disregard for conventions. The lyrics sometimes seem on the verge of autobiography, and they mainly deal 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, and mental disorder, the latter of which is symbolized by the radio sample of the demented poet Antonin Artaud used as an introduction to the track "Folkfuck Folie". The songs are generally shorter than on their debut and the production has a much grittier quality. Famine ironically said that his goal was "to create the ugliest and most irritating sound possible, in order make the album unlistenable after having heard two songs", adding "You have to be mentally unstable to go through the entire album". In his own words, Folkfuck Folie was an attempt to weed out the “trendies” in their audience, which put Peste Noire on the map as one of the most rebellious and unconventional act in the genre. Unsurprisingly, there appears to be a widespread popular stigma surrounding this particular release.