Fantomatic Plenitude

Fantomatic Plenitude is Nuit Noire’s latest album, a band famous for essentially being ridiculous and “amusing” pretty much based on the vocals and lyrics they deliver. Musically, Nuit Noire is lively heavily punk influenced black metal very much in the vein of Burzum’s Lost Wisdom, but taking reflection from the lyrics it’s much less serious and dark, instead possessing a luminous, radiant characteristic. I honestly have to say that the guitar tone and obvious ease at which the riffs are pumped out makes for quite a good listen, even if it’s barely above painting by numbers. They would probably make for good touring partners for the reinvented Darkthrone.

...and then come the vocals which are basically a black metal version of Anal Cunt’s Picnic of Love. Apparently co-founder Akhron left the band in 2003 due to a disagreement over said vocals, something I don’t blame him for; I would hate to sit behind a guy singing in a breathlessly shaky, out of time and out of tune falsetto or androgynous childish shriek. However, unlike Picnic of Love which was a single joke album of twenty minutes or so, Nuit Noire have three full lengths and an assortment of splits, EPs and demos. While obvious humour is clearly intended to be a major aspect of Nuit Noire, the delivery gets old quickly (which occurred with me within the space of one song), particularly when the music is performed competently according to the rough-n-ready style of music they aim for.

There is basically a huge division in Nuit Noire’s music: enjoyable music, shit vocals. I suppose if you have the patience for the vocals – or even like them – then Nuit Noire will probably be a worthwhile experience. If not, then in all probability you’ll just flog it to some poor bastard on eBay or constantly frustrate yourself after a few months by giving the fucking thing another spin just to be disappointed again.

...they would probably still be regarded as good touring partners of Darkthrone.

Most of the people who've heard Nuit Noire, are rallying about how lame they might sound with all the cheap sounding production and lyrics about fairies. Well. I'm not one of them.

Aah, this new album sounds so great! After a short intro, we encounter the album's best track, which is called "I am a fairy". Fast "faërical blasting punk" as usual, with occasional vocals by Emilie, and a catchy chorus. Following that is a nice arrange of 7 other new tracks, equally magical.

For the ones who have listened to NN's latest outputs, this album should sound rather similar, but still kinda new. Guitar work sounds very magical, distant... Drumming's soft-ish, but fast... Tenebras' vocals are clean and desperate, as if he's trying to call the fairies he believes in. All nine new studio tracks are the usual Nuit Noire stuff, which shouldn't be missed. And the addition of Emilie's singing doesn't actually shine out that much.

The next 9 tracks (yes, the album has 18 tracks total!) are from a recent live performance, where Nuit Noire plays classics like "Magical Blast" and "Fairies Of Paper", with the most superb sound quality! Every instrument can be heard clear as day. I think I've never heard a better sounding "black metal" live recording in my life. Every song rides on without any major mistakes, and Tenebras sounds almost identical with NN's studio recordings.

So... If you're a newcomer to faërical blasting punk, or an oldtimer... You still should get this CD. Now.