siLLy puPPy This album starts off with a ¾ timing waltz like guitar march sounding nothing like black metal. Second track kicks in and you get some lo-fi guitar riffing with extremely deranged screaming and a traditional metal guitar solo. Hmmmm.... this is some weird stuff. Third track starts off with a serious cymbol roll with more ¾ timing guitar, tribal drumming and the same deranged black metal screaming. Fourth track begins with same deranged black metal vocals simultaneously with Gregorian chants before a somewhat standard old school black metal riff begins.

Acoustic guitar intros, drum rolls, the grim scream vocals themselves accompanied by an operatic diva, doom metal minimalism or whatever else that happens to introduce the theme is the strategy for the diversification. Then once established that sound is always followed by the black metal guitar riffing and deranged and I mean SERIOUSLY deranged vocals to follow. It sounds formulaic but it really works and sustains my interest.

This is my first PEST NOIRE album and I love it! I think this is absolutely brilliant and look forward to hearing much more of this fine French black metal from Monsieur Famine. The trick for enjoying this is to not take it too seriously. Lots of over-the-topism taking place here. I enjoy this kind of stuff because it dares to expand beyond the parameters of someone else's ordained definitions of what black metal should be.

Wilytank Peste Noire's 2011 album is pretty zany, but at the same time pretty good. Compared to the first two albums (I haven't checked out their third), this has a lot of experimentation in it. Song 1 (I don't want to type out all the long-ass French song titles) has some overbearing Oi! influence while Song 2 has electronic/dance influence, especially with the electronic drum kit used.

Song 3 is yet another milieu of weird ideas. It is twenty minutes long, but executed quite pleasantly. There's still some electronic influence in the intro along with the sounds of a gun being cocked. After that, we get a somber sounding acoustic segment with female French vocals. With some more legit black metal elements eventually coming in, the song goes forth in a mid to slow paced tempo. The mid paced tempo eventually picks up as the song goes on. More Oi! influence near the end.

Song 4 is the most black metal esque song here so far. It's dark and crushing. The biggest amount of experimentation is around the later end of the 6 minute area wear the guitars sound like they belong in an Agalloch song (in terms of tone) and some samples of a monkey screaming in the background at one point. Song 5 starts out with an atmospheric sounding guitar playing and stays slow paced and somber for some time. Electric instruments do come in, but so does a cello. Around the 3 minute mark, the pace picks up to make the song somewhat more interesting.

I don't know what Famine was smoking while he was writing some of these songs, but this album turned out to be worthwhile. Guitar work is nice and reminiscent to Agalloch. Drums (acoustic and electronic) are well played. And production is decently clean. Definitely an oddball, but worth picking up.

Vehemency Peste Noire, one of the most interesting bands to come from France, released this EP in 2007. The first press, which I happened to buy, was sold out in a few days, but luckily it was repressed a bit later so that it didn’t become a mere collector item. The A side consists of four rehearsal tracks that were later re-recorded for the second full-length Folkfuck Folie. The B side has a different version of ”Phalènes Et Pestilence” that appeared originally on the debut album La Sanie des siècles. A funny thing is that the four main tracks sound more professional on this rehearsal than the versions that later appeared on Folkfuck Folie. This was most likely intentional, because Folkfuck Folie was made to sound as crazy and bad as possible, according to the front man Famine.

The four main tracks are fast and aggressive, but with relatively clean production. Musical comparisons are hard to make, but in case you have heard the debut album, think of those tracks but in more brutal way. This time the songs don’t contain much melodic passages and that sort of semi-progressive stuff. These songs are short and to-the-point, and they sound great especially due to the way they were executed: basically they are live tracks with studio sound. ”La Césarienne” is the only Peste Noire song made by anyone else than Famine: it is written and sung by the guitarist Neige, nowadays known from such acts as Amesoeurs and Alcest.

Although the A side was good, the B side is a total surprise. I already knew Phalènes Et Pestilence was a great track on the debut album, but this version beats it 100-0. In fact, I don’t want to hear the original after hearing this! The song is now 20 minutes long instead of 12, so there is extra 8 minutes of total audial pleasure. The sound is dustier and it fits the vinyl format nicely. From acoustic keystrokes and monk choirs to massive black metal climaxes with howling guitars, this song must belong to the category of best black metal songs out there.

If the main tracks deserve 3 stars for being good, and the bonus track 5 stars for being excellent, 4 stars is an appropriate score. I would say Lorraine Rehearsal is a worthy buy even for the bonus track alone, but the main tracks are good material too, especially if you think the versions on Folkfuck Folie are too weird.