Parlez vous Francais?

The phrase "French black metal" isn't used to describe much music (at least not that I'm aware of), but if bands like Celeste are the embodiment of that description, then I'm all for it.

Last night I stayed up late watching Airheads on HBO (a thoroughly awesome movie that any self-respecting metalhead must see). I was curious about the track listing for the soundtrack, so I got on my laptop to check it out and wound up surfing the web for a bit. I realized I hadn't done my daily reading of MetalSucks yet, so I headed to their site and came across a post about Celeste. Axl at MetalSucks was very enthused about the band's music and pointed out that there is no excuse to not check out the band's latest album "Misanthrope(s)" because it is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD.

I listened to the album last night and again this morning and have to say that it is pretty fantastic. When it comes to black metal, I only listen to a handful of bands like Emperor, Immortal, Wolves In The Throne Room, Mayhem and a few others because I find a lot of the bands to be a bit too silly for my personal liking. Celeste however definitely has chops and the music balances the melody (using that term loosely) and brutality just right so as to avoid bludgeoning you over the head too much. I have no idea what they are singing about because a) it is black metal and black metal vocalists are always indecipherable and b) I'm assuming it is being sung in French because the song titles are in French. I did put the song titles into my trusty Mac desktop translator and while a little is lost in the translation, it is safe to say they aren't singing about baguettes, wine and the Louvre. Sample translation: "... Anesthesia Your Members In An Orgy of Enthusiasm". Um, ok. Probably best that we have no idea what they are saying and concentrate on the music anyway.