In the solemn shadows of a lyrically resurrected Paris, where the whispers of revolution still haunt the cobblestones and the phantom caress of the guillotine's blade lingers in the air, stands a band - not merely of musicians, but of modern Marats, Robespierres in leather and lace, anointed with the spirit of insurrection. SETH, the harbingers of a dark yet fervidly awaited dawn, are poised once more to unleash a tempest upon the sanctified silence of the contemporary music scene with their newest auditory uprising, La France des Maudits.
The history of black metal formation SETH and Season of Mist spans back to the early days of the French metal scene. The band's debut Les Blessures de L'Ame (1998) was one of the first releases on the label. This album is now regarded as a cornerstone in French black metal, pioneering the usage of their native tongue on a black metal record.
The release of Les Blessures de L'Ame quickly gained international attention and SETH built a solid fanbase. The French blasphemers signed a two-release deal with Osmose Productions and participated on the MAYHEM cult tribute album Originators of the Northern Darkness alongside IMMORTAL and BEHEMOTH. The second full-length The Excellence came out in 2000 and featured a contribution from none other than Fenriz (DARKTHRONE), who wrote the lyrics for the song "Let Me Be The Salt In Your Wound".
Shortly after, the group recorded their third album Divine-X (2002) at the Excess Studios in Rotterdam (EPICA, AFTER FOREVER, SINISTER). This record demonstrated the ability of the band to mix gloomy and violent atmospheres and received extensive coverage from the international metal press at the time.
Returning to the Netherlands to record the fourth album Era-Decay (2004), two new members joined the ranks of SETH: vocalist Black Messiah and guitarist Cyriex. Afterwards, the band was invited to play at the prestigious Inferno festival in Norway in 2005.
A long hiatus followed, until the band returned in 2011 to play an exclusive show in Germany with the German cult act BETHLEHEM. The band re-joined the ranks of Season of Mist, eventually releasing The Howling Spirit (2013) and embarking on a European tour with PESTILENCE. Several appearances at major festivals followed, including Hellfest and Graspop Metal Meeting, concluded by a Canadian headliner tour with new vocalist Saint Vincent (BLACKLODGE).
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Les Blessures de L'Ame in 2018, SETH exclusively performed the entire album at festivals in Switzerland, Canada (Messe de Morts) and Belgium (Thronefest). The French label Les Acteurs de l'Ombre productions released a live recording of these shows, called 20 ans de Blaspheme. The band's new line-up features members of LOUDBLAST, ARKHON INFAUSTUS and MELTED SPACE.
In the twilight year of 2021, within Paris' shadow-ridden crypt, Studio Sainte Marthe, an album was birthed from SETH's tumultuous revelation, christened, La Morsure du Christ. Earning plaudits of wonder, it was no mere collection of hymns, but a solitary harbinger of deconstruction, a cataclysm of unseen proportions. Inspiration seeped from Notre-Dame de Paris-her skeletal frame ablaze in a 2019's firestorm-an emblem of decaying faith for a godforsaken era. As heavy as the iron heart of a guillotine, La Morsure du Christ echoed through the chambers of 2021, reigning supreme in a multitude of international & French metal charts, as well as its inclusion on premier streaming platform playlists. Bold symphonies interwoven with razor-sharp lyricism and a sophisticated conceptual resonance that dared to envision black metal through a revolutionary lens.
Rooted deeply in the soil that once drank deeply of royal and commoner blood alike during the tumultuous fervour of the French Revolution, SETH presents their latest opus - a black metal gospel according to the damned and the outcast. An intricate tapestry of shadows and defiance emerges from the darkness of history's recesses, swirling with the mists of apocalyptic visions and the ashes of fallen angels. La France des Maudits is a declaration of war, a call to arms for the souls still smouldering beneath the veneer of a world too long gripped in the cold hands of a moribund orthodoxy.
With the fractured bones of dead gods beneath their boots, SETH voyages through the forbidden and the occult, tracing the lines of ancient prophecies and the decadent whispers of La Grande Catin Ecarlate, the scarlet woman of the apocalypse. Their songs, from "Paris des Malefices" to "Insurrection", resonate with the echoes of a Paris besieged not by armies, but by souls clamouring for liberation - a city where each stone tells a tale of defiance, where every shadow harbours the spirit of revolt.
Lyrically, La France des Maudits is dripping with the wine of condemned men and the blood of saints, narrating the epic saga of rebellion from the ashes of a fallen Notre-Dame. This is not the Paris of light, but of enlightening darkness, where the facades of grandeur crumble to reveal the raw flesh of true humanity, writhing in its eternal struggle against divine oppression. Here, in the very heart of darkness, SETH finds its muse among the cacophony of broken chains and shattered dogmas.
Prepare to march beneath the banner unfurled by SETH, in the grand tradition of those unyielding souls who once stormed the Bastille and dared to dream of a world remade. La France des Maudits beckons - not to the gallows, but to glory.
The entire album has been written in French Alexandrine by Saint Vincent.
Tracklist
- "Paris des Malefices"
- "Et Que Vive le Diable!"
- "La Destruction des Reliques"
- "Dans le Coeur un Poignard"
- "Marianne"
- "Ivre du Sang des Saints"
- "Insurrection"
- "Le Vin du Condamne"
- "Initials B.B." (Bonus Track)
