France, with its built-in, cultural-aesthete position in history, with centuries of art appreciation, and particular obsessions with existentialism, death and the macabre, was bound to be a place where black metal would flourish, a fertile ground for generations of uniquely satisfying music.
There's no substitute, then, for a band with a decade-and-a-half's endurance in the genre coming over to the U.S., reminding us that our indigenous black metal, as great as it often is, is distinctly American, and comes from a different dark corner of the soul. ...and with the best French bands, crafting this music comes as naturally as eating snails, or killing off one or more protagonists at the very end of a film.
Mortífera were the indisputable stars of our night, inasmuch as their set was truncated by circumstantial necessity. Those three songs, for myself, were a hearty bowl of black soup, a savoring of what would come the next night, with Mortífera onstage at full force.
We then heard an older track from Celestia; both bands are comprised of nearly the same personnel (adding Ghaast on guitar), yet present so very differently. I'm particularly attached to the song we heard, "Immortal Floating Shadow."
Castlehead-playlist cheers went to Ateh Gibor Le'olam Shaitan (here's another piece; YT link) | gorgeous grind—one half of a split release by Trepanation | ...and some Stooges-inspired, Swiss, ritual-style electric weirdness from 1978 by Tötenköpf.
ETERNAL THANKS FOR YOUR ONGOING SUPPORT! AS THE YEARS DRIFT BY ON MY CASTLE OF QUIET, THE TIDE RISES, FALLS AGAIN, SEEMS I CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON APPRECIATIVE MY CASTLE OF QUIET LISTENERS TO DONATE / PLEDGE TO THE SHOW, AND HELP WFMU LURCH FORWARD DURING FUNDRAISING TIME.
MUCH APPRECIATION FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!
Our screen capture this week, a personal favorite, comes from Catherine Breillat's Bluebeard (2009), a wonderful, beguiling film that I can't recommend highly enough.
Thank you for a fantastic October, with Halloween still to come!
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