The Unquiet Grave presents:
The Unquiet Grave – Episode 16: I Died From A Vampyric Grief! (Les Legions Noires Show)
Tonight’s episode of The Unquiet Grave will be all about Les Légions Noires, or L.L.N., or the Black Legions as they’re variously called — a small, extremely insular circle of black metal musicians in France, mostly around the city of Brest, in the early to mid 90s. Their scene was unique in many ways. They seemed to talk about their internal worlds — sadness, grief, melancholy — more than other black metal bands of the period; for every “Black Wind of War” there’s an “I Died From a Vampiric Grief” (relatable). Sonically, the music of Les Légions Noires is sometimes so strange that it veers off the path of what can honestly be called metal entirely. They created a language, “gloatre,” consisting of lengthy strings of unpronounceable letter combinations with abundant and various accent marks. All these tactics helped ensure that their music was like the group itself — strange, melancholic, and to some degree unknowable.
We started off listening to some of the central Black Legions bands like Mütiilation, Vlad Tepes, and Belkètre; in the next block we dug a little deeper with some proto-LLN bands like Chapel of Ghouls and Zelda, and also explored some of the other bands from this scene that also played at least semi-traditional black metal; in the next block, however (getting weirder and less pronounceable as we go), we looked at central figure Vordb’s solo work, with tracks from Moëvöt, Brenoritvrezorkre, and Vagézaryavtre; finally, we took in the mixed bag featuring other dark ambient artists like Satanicum Tenebrae and Aäkon Këëtrëh, but also raw black metal from the likes of Vèrmyapre Kommando and Seviss.
Thanks for listening and see you next week!
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Here is a link to an archive of photos, interviews, zines, and scans of Black Legions output: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xjNdRgbMdMk2YMwm9VfBWNcTAbxDVXrj?usp=sharing.
Show Archive
Play show / Add show to playlistPlaylist:
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Moëvöt, “Uatr Mazagvatre Èrbsèdréa”
from Ézlèfbdrèthtr Vèpréub Zuèrkl Mazagvatre Èrbsèdréa
Self Released - 1994
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Moëvöt, “Larmes Crépusculaires”
from Ézlèfbdrèthtr Vèpréub Zuèrkl Mazagvatre Èrbsèdréa
Self Released - 1994
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Mutiilation, “Born Under the Master's Spell”
from Vampires of Black Imperial Blood
Osmose Productions - 1995
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Mutiilation, “Black Wind of War”
from Hail Satanas We Are the Black Legions - Single
Osmose Productions - 1994
Emily Robinson The Unquiet Grave July 25th, 2021
Posted In: Music Shows