Style: clown core avantgarde black (mixed vocals)
Review by: Sam
Country: France
Release date: 01-02-2019
NOTE: This album was originally included in Reports from the (progressive metal) underground: February 2019 – The Progressive Subway
What the actual fuck. Metal-Archives never fails to surprise me with the levels of absurdity it can harbor. But even among all the weird stuff I’ve discovered for this blog, this is by far the weirdest. Pensées Nocturnes is a French avantgarde black metal band, and this is their 6th album. It appears they started as DSBM, and after two albums they got more avantgarde. And well, this is certainly avantgarde, and extremely, extremely weird.
Essentially this is black metal mixed with circus music. There are also some other styles like tango, but most of it can be traced back to the circus. This is not a circus you go to for having a good laugh as proper entertainment, this is the fucked up mash pot of mentally unstable folks dressed up as clowns who don’t quite yet chase you with a chainsaw, but will certainly succeed at not making you feel at ease (to say the least). Most of the times you’re scared out of your wits, but after visiting the place a couple of times you realize that in fact they don’t (physically) harm you at all, and just put up a really great act. Then you start noticing that despite all the fucked up shit you see, there’s actually quite some structure to be found and the absurdism suddenly becomes comedic instead of utterly horrifying.
And that’s the theme for this album. It takes a good while to get into, but on repeated listens it’s surprisingly rewarding. At first listen it’s just an utterly chaotic assault of horror-themed circus music (and a whole bunch of other styles), freakish DSBM vocals and spastic black metal sections; with no sense of structure or themes to be found. However after a while you start picking up on the motifs and themes and the circus act suddenly becomes quite tangible. All the accordions, horror synths and trumpets actually start to make sense. And then suddenly this album becomes actually listenable, and, dare I saw, enjoyable.
My only qualm with this album is that among all the circus music, Pensées Nocturnes tend to forget about writing actually good black metal parts. I know it isn’t (and shouldn’t be) the main focus of this album, but having some neat riffage or great atmosphere in there from time to time can’t hurt. This also ties into that the album tends to lack in climactic value a bit, but imo that can be forgiven as it’s made up for by the sheer absurdity of it all.
So to come to a conclusion, Grand Guignol Orchestra is a challenging, but ultimately rewarding listen. Don’t immediately turn this off because of the absurdity. This is an album well worth sinking your teeth into and letting it grow on you. I had absolutely zero expectations for this album when I stumbled upon it, but I’m glad I decided review it, because surprisingly this is actually my favorite album of what I’ve reviewed so far this year. Proceed at your own risk.
Recommended tracks: Poil de Lune, Gauloises ou Gitanes, Triste Sade
Recommended for fans of: Mr. Bungle, Igorrr, BTBAM, Sigh, really fucking weird shit
Final verdict: 7.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Les Acterus de l’Ombre Productions – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook
Pensees Nocturnes is:
– Leon Harcore (All Instruments)
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