Black Millenium (Grimly Reborn)

Marking the bitter return of Meyhna'ch, aka William Roussel, to the French black metal scene, Black Millenium (Grimly Reborn) represents a new era of style for the now one-man project: cleaner production, mature songwriting, and beautiful storytelling behind each song. Whether it be the downfall of a rural village to the remote abyss, a demon's pilgrimage through devastated lands, the scornful misery and hatred of sick clergy, or the bitter self and the now "decrepit" LLN, Black Millenium masterfully combines the musical arts with visual storytelling via modern poetry. These are what keep Mütiilation among the top in the French Black Legions. In his own words, "I survived time and death to meet you... In the past, I told 'we'll see in a few years who will still be here and who will not.' So you buried me too fast, but here I am and I shall stand to make you suffer. May the ancient flame burn again!" -Meyhna'ch 2001

The album features atmospheric and depressive-sounding buzzsaw tremolo picked guitars and rythmic palm muted riffs to accentuate key moments in songs, along with the eventual programmed symphonic instruments, clean picked chords, and feral, quick, chaotic riffs to prove the point of the imagery the lyrics provide. The bass guitar is quiet in the mix, which is to be expected; the programmed drums keep themselves interesting and fresh despite their sometimes plastic sound, using well-written beats and fills. Meyhna'ch's vocals on this record are by far my favorite in the entire Mütiilation discography; they are loud, consistent, well performed, disturbing, and, for my lack of better words, "satisfyingly crunchy." Every moment in any song has its worth and charm; they are similar in length and quality and provide something for everyone who already enjoys Mütiilation's style. ''Black Millenium'' is by far among the best in the catalog.

The album begins with some unexpectedly clean chords and evolves in a rythmic, almost dancy way, followed by a whirlwind of tremolo picked riffs, leading us through the melancholic, nihilistic death of a rural dwelling. The following two songs touch on the Christian ideas of prophecy and priesthood and are perverted by William's view and imagination; halfway through "New False Prophet," Meyhna'ch crafts a catchy march-like section before returning to the classic blast beats and riffs. "The Hanged Priest" features some of my favorite progressions and riffs, my top pick from this album: it uses the almost trademark rythmic muting, found from now on in every future release, "whirlwind," and "up and down" riffs. "Inferi Ira Ductus" is a fascinating song, featuring Latin lyrics describing a demon's destruction of a town. It uses disturbing and almost ear-piercing high notes to enter its headspace. The next batch of four songs touches on the death of the self, nightmares of consciousness, and humankind's twilight. An interesting moment is "A Dream," a short track describing William's personal nightmares of his mystical, forceful demise; two clean guitar tracks, one picking a chord and the other playing individual notes, are accompanied by eventual drum beats and Meyhna'ch's narration. The next two songs carry the quintessential misanthropy the subgenre is marked by, dealing with hatred towards humankind but also William's personal enemies, never named.

"Black as Lead and Death" and the outro track represent the climax and finale of the album; we accompany the narrator to his spiraling demise, his world turning to ashes in a repetitive, robotic way shown using two major parts: a desperate tremolo picked riff and a bitter, slow-paced riff representing a conscious break, being in itself all the more anxiety-inducing. It ends abruptly, with the word "black" screamed over and over in the context of metaphors to the outside and inside worlds, followed by "Outro": shallow breathing noises, engulfed by static noise, as if already reaching the beyond, leading us only to believe the narrator's death occurs.

For those of us who prefer black metal raw and fiercely anticommercial, it's easy to look at Les Légions Noires as a high-water mark. I am most partial to the acid-spitting viciousness of Vlad Tepes, but Mütiilation is nearly as laudable and Black Milennium remains an album that challenges and reasserts what I look for in this genre.

Of course, the non-black-metal elements are hard to avoid, be it the amateurish "spooky rock" riffing heard at times in songs like "New False Prophet" or the bizarre, poorly-executed digital manipulation heard throughout the album. There is also the matter of the lyrics, which blow past the usual esotericism (and English-as-a-second-language-ism) into the truly bizarre and absurd ("since the appearance of those weird black eggs..."). All this is to say nothing of the album art and promotional material, which suggest that the band's leader returned from the dead for this album's creation (albeit weakened somewhat, as evidenced by the wheelchair on the truly classic album cover).

I am not going to claim on behalf of Meyhna'ch some sort of deliberate Dadaist strangeness, as I do not believe this was the cause of these deviations from the norm. What appeals to me about the record is, rather, its clear sincerity in spite of the strangeness. The melodic and evil second-wave riffing is unmistakably the work of an artist deeply entrenched in the genre (a fact that should be self-evident for any student of these black arts) and the primitive drums and bass belie a creativity that refuses to let a rudimentary skill level impinge upon its will.

And, really, for as strange as some moments can be, much of the album is strikingly straightforward. Most of the songs spend the majority of their runtime with midtempo or slow drums underscoring riffs that could have appeared on any of Mütiilation's earlier releases. The vocals, when they are not manipulated and modulated with computers, are as grim and guttural as any of black metal's early masters. Some tracks, like "Curse My Funeral," even include blast beats and tremolo riffs, clearly unafraid to rest on well-worn hallmarks of the genre.

And so those odd moments seem to me to be the artist's genuine efforts at pushing forward his style of choice, and exerting his own unique vision upon the genre which, by 2001, his earlier releases had undoubtedly helped shape. His liner notes indicate a desire to push back against the trend-chasing kids who had perverted the genre. I doubt neither his stated aim nor his self-assured success.

As much as this album seems to get panned in comparison to Mütiilation's older material, it stands up as a damn solid black metal album in it's own right. OK, so the atmosphere of old is entirely smothered by a relatively clear, sterile production - but in spite of that, you can still palpably sense M'yanech's drug-fueled hatred seething from every note. Overall this a lot faster and more intense than Vampires.. and Remains.., lashing out with a much more aggressive approach rather than the languid darkness they once conjured up. Reduced entirely to a drum-machine driven solo project, the new face of Mütiilation is one of intense hatred rather than melancholic madness.

After a deceptively clean, strummed-chord intro, "The Eggs Of Melancholy" smacks you over the head with an insane 5 minutes of high speed blackened chaos. It's followed by the slower, creeping riffage of "New False Prophet", which has since become something of an anthem. The chord progressions and clean-picked main riff in this song ooze complete lunacy, fitting well with the disturbing lyrical content (which is a lot more audible here than ever before). The rest of the tracks swing between the same high speed assault ("Curse My Funeral" and the title track being particularly vicious) and slower ones more reminiscent of the early demo material given a complete production overhaul ("The Hanged Priest" and "No Mercy For Humans", which is almost groovy). There's also an amusing interlude track, "A Dream", in which M'yancech croaks a spoken-word section over some acoustic guitars, sounding like a demented French narrator from some obscure horror movie.

Overall, this is a different Mütiilation, but still an extremely good one. The guitar playing especially is top-notch, with plenty of standout riffs, and it's probably the first album from this band that you can actually bang your head to. You even get some extremely silly booklet artwork, including M'yanech grimming out in a wheelchair and a fat topless nun amusing herself with a crucifix (albeit done in a much less glamorous manner than another, vastly inferior band has already used on a certain shirt)... I still can't figure out what half the other booklet pictures are meant to be, but I guess that's the intention. Just like the music itself, the pictures are obscure, bleak and somewhat disturbing - just the way it should be. Horns up!

Les Legiones Noires return! After four years of silence and speculation the oldest and greatest of the French Black Legions have returned with one of the finest black metal releases of the year, "Black Millenium". The band is now down to sole member Meyhna'ch (now going by his given name, "Wil Roussel"), and at first it seemed that the essence of the band had changed. A big part of the charm of early Mütiilation was the 'live' feel they had by recording on a 4- or 8-track in the rehearsal room, where you could hear the looseness and the room ambience, but the new album has a crisp, clean, digital-sounding recording quality with a plugged-in direct guitar sound and a drum machine. This put me off at first, but after a minute I noticed how sick it all sounds - almost like Wil didn't even bother trying to tweak sounds. The guitar sounds strangled in faster parts and really fuzzy and 'big' in the slower parts - almost over-distorted in a way. The vocal approach is different too - Wil trades his shrieking for a more grim-croak approach, not unlike the last two tracks from the "Remains..." album.

And the songs themselves - as genius as ever, staying familar while also covering some newer ground. The album opener, "The Eggs of Melancholy", contains the familiar superfast melodic chord strumming and the slower 'drone' sections like earlier Mütiilation, but the second song "New False Prophet" kicks off in a new direction - it starts with a muted single-note riff and eerie processed vocals that builds with some overlaid guitar melodies until it blasts forth with more fast strumming. There is more subtlety present as well, with the occasional layered clean guitars making an appearance (something virtually impossible to do at full volume in a rehearsal room), some chiming bells here and there, and great use of double-tracked processed vocals. A lot more attention has been paid to those kind of subtle touches which adds a lot of depth while keeping it familiar. Other especially noteworthy songs are the trudging, eerie, then blasting "Inferi ira ductus", the atmospheric interlude "A Dream", the suicidally insane "Black as Lead and Death", and "No Mercy for Humans" with its violent declaration of war on those pathetic beings. Only time will tell if this surpasses the godly "Vampires of Black Imperial Blood" or "Remains..." albums, but it certainly at least on the same level - a dark, misanthropic, and amazing masterpiece of black metal.

"I survived time and death to meet you... When all stopped in '96, trends and childish bands were ruling the Black Metal scene and the true old bands were buried under a pile of commercial crap. There was no use to go on as I was sick of the way Black Metal was turning. After 4 lost years of decadence and depression, I'm fed up to see children take my place, so it's time to strike back and spread Evil! The old cult bands should prevail and show to this world they will survive any trend. We have to crush those well thinking pigs who made Black Metal something common and accepted. Who are they to steal our glory?....In the past, I told 'we'll see in a few years who will still be here and who will not'. So you buried me too fast but here I am and I shall stand to make you suffer. May the ancient flame burn again."
- Wil Roussel, 2001.

(Originally published at LARM (c) 2001)