#if you are a fan of these genres you probably already know gojira. and if you dont like metal im not confident they would convert you

[foureyes802]

ive been working my way through the gojira albums this weekend and i need to scream into the void about magma holy shit. how come nobody told me this album with 2 grammy nominations was THIS good. i feel like a different person. gojira singlehandedly restoring my faith in the french

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

Employed To Serve are putting British metal back on top

For the past decade, Justine Jones and Sammy Urwin of Employed To Serve have helped elevate British rock and metal both on and off the stage, from Album Of The Year releases to their championing of new bands. Now, with fourth full-length Conquering on the horizon, the pay-off is being felt across the entire scene…

Some years ago now, at the end of her last job in retail, Justine Jones made a decision. Providing she could eat and had a roof over her head, she wasn’t, she told herself, going to spend her life doing anything that was “un-fun���. Instead, Justine decided, she’d navigate the world by working hard on the things she loved and that she truly believed in.

“I’ve never been content to be a cog,” she says. ​“I’ve always wanted to be like a very heavily involved person. I like having a say, I guess. I’ve never liked having a manager, in terms of work. I have got that childish, rebellious thing, like, ​‘Don’t tell me what to do.’”

Employed To Serve are not cogs. Nor are Justine and guitarist Sammy Urwin ones to sit around and wait for the lights to go green. With what the singer calls ​“our Hatebreed, perseverance attitude”, a self-starting, hands-dirty, DIY ethos that’s as much about enthusiasm for music and building a scene as it is firing up pits, they have become one of the most exciting British metal bands of the past decade. When Oli Sykes invited them to join the Bring Me The Horizon-curated All Points East festival two summers ago, he noted that they were ​“one of the few heavy bands around who I actually like”.

Kerrang! had got there before him, mind. In 2017, we crowned Employed To Serve’s second album, The Warmth Of A Dying Sun, our Album Of The Year. Its follow-up, 2019’s Eternal Forward Motion, was awarded a full 5K rating and a spot on our front cover, their second. When they gave us the nod a while ago that they were about to drop the first single from their brilliant fourth album, Conquering, coming this September, we didn’t even need to think about giving them a third.

Like Oli’s band, there’s an energy to Employed To Serve, an orbit around them that feels like it’s pulling in other bands, linking seemingly unlinked outfits together through sheer enthusiasm. Beyond the band, offstage, Justine and Sammy run Church Road Records from their home in the Surrey commuter town of Woking (a place notably annihilated by Martians in H.G. Wells’ War Of The Worlds). Through this, they can sign and put out music by bands that they like: the only real signing policy amounting to ​“bands that excite me”, says Justine. There’s as much gratefulness towards the artists they release – Svalbard, Palm Reader, Cruelty, to name but three – for trusting them to look after their records, as there is to anyone who gives their own band the time of day.

“As cheesy as it sounds, we’re lifers,” says Justine. ​“I love music. I love releasing it. I love that I do it for a full time job. I love playing live. First and foremost, we are music fans. Obviously, we love being in a band and stuff. But we just live and breathe music.”

As with so many things for so many people, the depth of this dedication was thrown into sharp focus as COVID took hold last year. At the end of 2019, Employed To Serve were on a winning streak. Eternal Forward Motion was one of the year’s most acclaimed releases, they band had spent a month on the road with Bury Tomorrow in Europe and the UK, and on New Year’s Eve, Sammy and Justine put a bow on their long-term relationship by tying the knot. In March 2020, just before lockdown ended touring for everyone, the band’s UK headlining run just about snuck in, and saw them sell out London’s Camden Underworld, a show that ended in chaos with the audience onstage triumphantly carrying Sammy on their shoulders.

When things ground to a halt, the gap left was palpable. Once source of reflection came in taking stock in what the band had achieved, while also having to find a replacement for guitarist Richard Jacobs. It’s an exercise the pair are admittedly used to, to the point where Justine says, ​“We probably look like dictators, like it’s the Sammy and Justine show.”

To wit, keen observers will note that they are the only members of Employed To Serve to be on both this Kerrang! cover and the last one. There’s no bad blood anywhere – Richard left to move to Japan with his wife, drummer Robbie Back has become a dad, bassist Marcus Gooda went on to focus on other things – it was simply the wage of getting older in a band. When life’s forks come up, you have to make a choice. For Sammy and Justine, the choice just happens to be to stay the course. Three new members have been drafted into the band – guitarist David Porter, bassist Nathan Pryor and drummer Casey McHale – but it still provided a moment of reflection for what was actually important.

Another, more serious bit of stock-taking came last September, when Justine resigned from her job as a label manager at Holy Roar records, after serious assault allegations were made against the label’s owner. Soon after, that label folded entirely.

But in both cases, where events could have sown doubt or caused serious damage, things instead bloomed. And so, Sammy and Justine turned Church Road – a small concern of Sammy’s for years already – into a full-time occupation and livelihood, taking on Holy Roar releases already on the slate and pressed, and releasing them herself. In the case of their first release, Svalbard’s When I Die, Will I Get Better?, there was barely a month to move everything over, and yet it still hit the shelves on the day it was always intended to. Because, looking back, it’s almost like there was no other consideration than to carry on.

“When everything happened, I thought, ​‘Maybe I could go to a bigger label or something.’ But that’s not where my heart is,” says Justine. ​“My heart is in finding bands in tiny little venues and then helping them grow into their second hours and stuff. And it’s just more fun. Obviously, it’s very scary [running your own label], and I’ve spent a lot of this past year very stressed. But I don’t have to answer to anyone – I just do the best I can for the bands because I love them. My favourite thing is sitting on Bandcamp with a coffee or a beer, and going through each genre finding the best bands of that day, or going through Apple Music or Spotify and finding new bands. It has been like that since I was a kid. So doing a record label just makes sense.

“Obviously I wish it was under better circumstances, but COVID has been almost like a blessing for this band, because it’s helped us regroup,” she continues. ​“It made us take stock of all the cool shit we’ve been lucky enough to do. Because sometimes when you get caught in the rat race of everything, you’re never really living in the moment. And then COVID happens, and you think, ​‘What do I miss?’ Friends, family, playing shows. And I’m like, ​‘Cool, I’m doing the right thing. Let’s get back to it.’”

For Justine, this meant becoming the boss. For Sammy, already a music obsessive with an apparent addiction to both old-school death metal and playing guitar in as many bands as possible as a member of Renounced and Motormouth (as well as playing in Glorious with Justine), it was an opportunity to dedicate his life to his passion even further. A gardener by trade, he’d lately found himself wondering what was beyond it.

“I was doing gardening work on and off for the last 10 or so years. I enjoyed the work, but sometimes I would kind of find myself being a little bit like, ​‘What’s the five-year plan?’” he says. ​“I’ll always do the band. But we got a few members going off and doing other stuff. I knew I had to find something else to do, because I wanted to do something in music that also fit around being in the band. I just knew I wanted to be with like-minded people talking about music all day.”

Sammy and Justine talk about music a lot. Get Sammy started on metal, and his enthusiasm quickly runs away with him. For Justine, their impending gig at Download Pilot a couple of days after our interview is as much about watching everyone else as it is their own show. Though one of the heaviest bands on the line-up, as a showcase of the breadth of rising talent the British rock scene has, appearing on the same ticket as Enter Shikari, Trash Boat, Creeper, Boston Manor, Neck Deep, Loathe and Conjurer is a large-scale version of what they’ve been driving at for years.

“It’s so funny, because it kind of sounds weird, but within the British scene, it makes total sense,” says Justine. ​“It’s a very rich scene at a minute, and it’s for all spectrums. You have bands like Orchards and Gender Roles on the Big Scary Monsters label, but equally, there’s loads of heavier bands, too. Everyone knows how hard it can be being a British band, because it’s hard to get over to America. And now, unfortunately, it’s gonna be hard to get to Europe [after Brexit]. So everyone’s got this thing like, ​‘We’re this little island here and we need to stick together and support each other.’ It’s a nice collective, and a moment in time to be a part of.”

“Even though we’ve written a more metal record [with Conquering] for us, that’s definitely not a statement of us closing the door,” says Sammy. ​“Obviously we’d love to tour with Gojira or Lamb Of God or something like that. But if Creeper came to us and said, ​‘Do you want to tour with us?’ we’d say yes.”

It was on such a line-up that Justine first appeared on the cover of Kerrang!, alongside Becky Blomfield of much-missed alt.punks Milk Teeth, with whom ETS were touring at the time. It not only showed two rising talents in the British scene, but also how well such different ends of it slotted together. Which was kind of the point.

“We were like the little metal sandwich in that tour,” says Justine. ​“But we worked well, because it was an example of this sort of British scene that’s going on at the moment.”

“People turned up who would be wearing ETS T‑shirts, and then singing along with Milk Teeth and vice versa,” says Sammy. ​“That’s so cool to see. Obviously there’s still a little bit of gatekeeping going on in the world of metal. But, for me, that was a really good sign of a shift.”

“It makes total sense. I don’t know why it’s not more of a thing, having mixed bills like that,” says Justine. ​“Everyone in our generation grew up listening to Slipknot and blink-182; two polarising bands, but it makes total sense. I listen to both of them religiously. So that actually kind of makes sense in a bill. It’s literally a music fan’s show. I remember Thursday opening for My Chemical Romance at Wembley on The Black Parade tour when I was 14, and Reuben opening for Billy Talent as well. I literally got to get into heavier stuff from those mixed line-ups.”

Put it to either of them that between their music, DIY attitude and simple lust for wanting to marshall a scene without walls, Employed To Serve could be called leaders, or at least the setters of examples for others to follow, and it’s a compliment they’ll take, but also something that they don’t want to take too much credit for.

“I mean, it’s for others to say, isn’t it?” says Justine. ​“We just have mental to-do list of stuff we want to achieve. And if that inspires people, that’s sick. It’s never like we try to be the leaders or anything.

“At the end of the day, I love the idea of kids getting into metal because of us and vice versa.”

As such an entry point, Conquering is a very good one. Ultra heavy and explosive, it leans even further into Sammy’s love of death metal OGs like Morbid Angel and Death, plus classic thrash, with shredding solos everywhere, as well as more vocals from the guitarist. And not even changing three-fifths of the band since their last album has had anything other than a sharpening effect. Fundamentally, Conquering is exciting, full of energy, and powered by a deep-set love for simply doing it.

“The floodgates have been opened, I guess, in terms of wearing our influences for this record on our sleeve,” says Sammy. ​“I like to think we still maintain the ETS that was there before, but it’s obvious that during lockdown and leading up to this record, for me it was about early Machine Head and Testament and Exodus and stuff. I feel like this is our chance to show that side of us a bit more.”

“It’s where I feel at home, as well, because I grew up listening to early Lamb of God and ​’90s-era Roadrunner Records bands,” adds Justine. ​“Straight-up metal, but not straight-up metal in the sense that we’re doing it by numbers. We sound like us, but there are more choruses and solos.”

“Lyrically, it’s similar to Eternal Forward Motion and touching on some pretty bleak stuff, but for the most part we tried to put a positive spin on it,” says Sammy. ​“I wanted put all of that energy into something positive. I didn’t want to say the same things again, because I didn’t want to make it sound like it’s the same record. I’d say it’s an even more positive record than before.”

The day we meet for this interview, long after the tape recorder goes off, conversation about bands and music continues into the small hours. Three days later, at Download, as Sammy chucks himself into the crowd at the end of the band’s set and Justine alternates between roaring her head off and smiling her face off, the delight in all this is self-evident. Employed To Serve are one of the best metal bands in the country – one of the best bands full stop, in fact – but on a broader scale, they also act as a reflection of an emerging wave of bands for whom being in a band is an act of joy, of doing something with your life, of not settling for things that are, as Justine says, ​“un-fun”.

“Stuff in the band does get to you sometimes and you do get grouchy or whatever,” admits Sammy. ​“But we realised that we’re also very fortunate people who have played with people that have become our best friends. It’s about taking stock and being like, ​‘This is fun.’ That’s what the album is about. It’s about not letting things in your life get the better of you. Because sometimes they do, and you find yourself getting all aggy, and you’re only doing yourself a disservice at that point, really.”

“I think Henry Rollins said, ​‘Tenacity over talent,’” says Justine. ​“We work hard, but it’s tenacity. You could be the sickest guitar player but just sit in your bedroom and never play a show. No.”

“I mean, I do set myself up for it, where I’m kind of pulling my hair out,” adds Sammy. ​“I’ve had times where I’ve had three or four band practices a week. And there’s a gig this night, and a gig that night, and I’ve got to do this, that and the other. But you’ve gotta be in it to win it. And when a cool gig comes about, or cool tour comes about, or you’re just really happy with what you recorded, that’s when you know it’s worth it.”

As they say themselves, Justine and Sammy are lifers. As other members leave to start families or move abroad to begin the next chapter of their lives, rather than feeling left behind, it’s almost made them realise even more quite what a special thing they have.

When it brings you as much happiness as doing this clearly does, what else do you need? And anyway, it’s worth it to not simply be a cog.

[jettreno]

(Film rec anon) I’m not a big fan of horror/a lot of jumpscares or violence, but other than that I’d love suggestions of both kinds of films you suggested, the well-made and the enjoyable ones!

:D alright! let’s see what i’ve got, i’m gonna try to go for movies you may not have seen, so i won’t name some of the super popular movies i love like, idk, jurassic park or spiderman into the spiderverse. in no particular order:

tallulah (2016) - one of elliot page’s best films imo he fucking KILLS it, and so does allison janney. it’s a comedy drama, emphasis on the drama, about a young drifter who accidentally-on-purpose kidnaps a baby from a negligent mother, then turns to her ex-boyfriend’s mother for help. really sad but REALLY good, with what i would call a hopeful ending

jeanne dielman, 23 quai du commerce, 1080 bruxelles (1975) - the film that got me to love slow cinema. fair warning this one is almost four hours long and is intentionally boring as hell, but is also one of the single most incredible movies i’ve ever seen, it’s a true masterpiece. three days in the life of belgian single mother/widow/sex worker jeanne dielman, it’s a close examination of the subtle chaos of the domestic sphere

badlands (1973) - okay so this one does have some violence but iirc it’s not particularly graphic. VERY loosely inspired by the starkweather murders, it’s narrated from the point of view of a teenager (played by sissy spacek, who crushes it as always) who ends up running away and going on a murder spree with a 25 year old dude she meets after he kills her father. super weird and it fucked me up but it’s very very good. i know i already said this but god, sissy spacek has the RANGE

the wonders (2014) - a (mostly) italian language film about a teenage girl growing up in the italian countryside and working for her german father’s honey company. it’s just beautiful, man, it really got to me. extremely haunting and melancholy, the relationship between the protagonist and her father is very poignant and effecting 

the way way back (2013) - this is one of my girlfriend’s favorite movies :’) and it SLAPS. another comedy drama but this time with a bigger emphasis on comedy, it’s about a teenage boy staying with his mom, sister, and mom’s shitty boyfriend at the mom’s shitty boyfriend’s beach house for the summer, and he ends up getting a job at a local water park. it makes me cry but GOD it’s good, also the entire cast gives it their all. you will never hate steve carrell more than in this movie HJDFNGJDFG

godzilla (1954) - the ORIGINAL godzilla (gojira) movie, it’s an incredibly cutting critique of american atomic bomb development, testing, and usage. like this movie is intensely political but people who haven’t seen it don’t usually believe me when i say that which is Highly Irritating. also okay listen, the special effects are campy, yes, but i think they’re really good for 1954 standards and still hold up pretty damn well

best in show (2000) - okay you’ve probably seen this one but oh my god it’s so fucking funny. a mockumentary about various competitors in a dog show, it makes me lose my mind every time i see it. “we could not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about”

certain women (2016) - back on my slow cinema bullshit. three episodes about different women living in montana, it’s slow and beautiful and listen it’s just really good ALRIGHT!!! 

i definitely have some more but i’ve put off this ask for too long already hjdfgjdkfgnd, if you want any more recs/want me to go in a different direction (since most of these are “movies that make me sad but are profound and beautiful” which is. not always the most fun genre) please let me know!!! :D and again i’m sorry for putting this off for wayyy too long, i got busy with school unfortunately 

[tyrantisterror]

Could you make like a top five or so best movies for a Kaiju film newb like me to dip their feet into? Thanks a lot!

Ooo, that’s a difficult but fun task!  I’ll try my best!

For clarity, this is not a Top 5 Best Kaiju Movies list or even a TT’s Top 5 Personal Favorite Kaiju Movies List.  This is a list specifically focused on introducing someone to kaiju, under the presumption they have very little if any understanding of the genre going in.  As you specified, it’s for newbies - which means some of the best kaiju movies aren’t going to be on it, because a lot of the really good ones are far better experienced once you know the genre well.  It’s hard to enjoy Avengers if you haven’t seen Iron Man, after all.

I’d also recommend watching them in the order I’m listing, because my goal is to give you a good entry point while also preparing you for the fun, weird shit that makes kaiju movies so special, and that’s going to take some progress.

First Intro to Kaiju Marathon Film - Kong Skull Island

I want to start you off with something close in tone to modern blockbuster sci-fi action movies, and while I’m spoiled for choices in this regards, I feel Kong Skull Island is your best bet.  More than any other modern kaiju film, it puts an emphasis on how its monsters are characters, with the main plotline being focused on humanity coming to understand the titular monster, King Kong, as being far more complex than simple obstacle to be overcome.  It’s also got a lot of weird monster shit in it, and honestly feels more like a typical Godzilla movie than a typical Kong movie, to its benefit.  Plus it’s PRETTY GOOD and very fun.

Runners Up for this category: Pacific Rim (a better film than Kong Skull Island, but while it’s a great gateway to kaiju cinema, it means so much more if you come into it with an understanding of the movies and TV shows that inspired it - I would put off watching it until you’ve watched a LOT of kaiju movies just so your first experience is all the more impactful), Rampage (gets down most of the same positives as Kong Skull Island, but is less ambitious.  Still a hell of a lot of fun and not a bad entry point into the genre.)

Second Intro to Kaiju Marathon Film - Gamera: Guardian of the Universe

Backtracking a couple decades, Gamera: Guardian of the Universe is the first film in the 90′s Gamera trilogy, and probably my favorite of the 90′s kaiju flicks overall.  Its sequels are arguably smarter (and definitely more ambitious) films, but you’re looking for an entry point, and this is what you need for that.  It’s new enough to still be slick, while old enough to give you a feel for the man-in-suit action that defines the classic kaiju film - and has some of the best man-in-suit special effects of all time to boot.  The villain monster, Gyaos, is truly horrifying and nasty, and the hero monster Gamera is absolutely lovable.  The human cast is pretty good too, and it’s one of the best examples of a human hero with a supernatural connection to the main hero monster, which is a pretty standard (and deservedly so) trope for the genre.

Runners Up for this category: Godzilla 1985/The Return of Godzilla (a lot of the same good qualities along with a more somber/scary tone, but a bit harder to get a hold of), Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack (again, a lot of the same good qualities, including the same director as Gamera: Guardian of the Universe, but with a bit more complicated mythology, and a bit more dependence on you knowing a bit about Godzilla already beforehand)

Third Intro to Kaiju Marathon Film - Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla (1974)

Backing up a few decades more, our third film in the marathon is meant to dive into the fucking CRAZY shit that makes kaiju films so fun.  With robot kaiju doppelgangers, spies, space-apes masquerading as humans, a giant semi-organic version of those Shisa lion dog statues, and 1970′s Japanese jazz music, this movie will give you a sense of how goddamn weird a kaiju flick can get, all while having some of the best action in the series.  It kicks ass and will leave you baffled but entertained.

Runners Up for this category: Godzilla vs. Hedorah/Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster (even weirder than this film, but more divisive among fans in terms of quality), Godzilla: Final Wars (weirder still, dumber, and far more divisive, but also so fucking fun)

Fourth Intro to Kaiju Marathon Film - Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster

This is possibly my favorite kaiju film of all time, and while part of my love for it is how it marks a colossal turning point in Godzilla’s character arc in the Showa movies (and thus isn’t quite as easy to appreciate divorced from the context of the movies that precede it), I still recommend it here because even taken on its own it’s a gem.  It’s a tight story that’s not quite as bizarre as Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla, but still plenty weird enough to entertain and delight the imagination.  Its got great human characters and great characterization for its monsters as well (they have arcs!  They develop!  It’s great!).  This is the reasonable standard by which kaiju movies should be judged - this is the solid A grade kaiju film.  Plus it gives you a good understanding of four of the most famous/important kaiju characters to exist - Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah - and so just for that it deserves to be viewed as a primer.

Runners Up for this category: Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (just as many good qualities as Ghidorah but sadly lacks Mothra), Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) (just as many good qualities as Ghidorah but sadly lacks King Ghidorah and Rodan), Gorgo (I may get hate for this but Gorgo is not only a kaiju film, but a very good metric to judge solo kaiju films - an A Grade for a kaiju movie with just one main monster)

Fifth Intro to Kaiju Marathon Film - Gojira/Godzilla (1954)

If you want to see what a completely straight-laced, horror-centric, utterly serious kaiju movie could be, you have to go with the original: the Japanese cut of the 1954 Godzilla movie.  It is a dark, somber, political, and legitimately unnerving film, with some great cinematography, marvelous acting, and an utterly gripping conflict at the heart of it.  It treats its central monster as a character while still mining the monster movie concept for all the horror and tragedy it could muster, and if you do a little research on it (such as learning that the opening scene of a fishing boat suddenly being hit with an unexpected explosion of radioactivity was based on a REAL incident where a fishing boat was caught in the crossfire of a secret US nuclear test on the Bikini atoll, or how Godzilla’s rampage is designed to recall the firebombings that were inflicted upon Japan in WW2) you’ll realize it was a very daring film for its time as well.  It is more than deserving of its status as a classic.

Runners Up for this category: Shin Godzilla (if black and white movies aren’t your thing, this has many of the same good qualities as Godzilla while being far more modern, though I think it is more effective in the context of the Godzilla movies that preceded it), Cloverfield (similarly serious and horrifying as Godzilla, but not quite as complex story-wise nor as good character-wise - plus the found footage style can put some people off)

[noiseartists]

FLEUR DU MAL: A perfect blend of Shoegaze, Post-Rock and 80s indie pop

FLEUR DU MAL is a duo from Paris, France, created in 2019.

“We offer a seamless blend of a wide array of sounds, from French "chanson" to Post-Metal, and everything in between.”

It is an apt description. I am really fond of their music that cleverly includes some of the music I have loved (and still love) with clear influence from 80’s French Pop (Etienne Daho), French Shoegaze (Welcome to Julian, Dead horse One) and French Post-Rock (Alcest) .

It seems an unlikely mix, but FLEUR DU MAL managed bringing everything together, never copycating, creating their own unique blend of music. They may be the only band to have suceeded such an extraordinary feat. Etienne Daho would been proud (listen to the cover below).

Their way they singing also reminds me of one of my favourite French Shoegaze bands of the 90s, the Sigh, that you can find in exclusivity on Noise Artists Bandcamp portal (LP is available, EP will be soon).

Needless to say that I quickly became a huge fan of their music, with so many sounds I love and so many memories arising from listening to their music. I recon that many French indie fans of my generation will have the same reaction and hopefully all the following generations.

The music work to date is:

2020: Spleen II, EP

2019: Spleen I, EP; Regrets, single; Soleil, single

Their 2 EPs have a similar structure:

An intro mixing electronica an guitar indie without Lyrics but with simple and captivating melodies and structures.

Song 3 is a cover (Etienne Daho and Jean-Louis Murat respectively, 2 of the godfathers of the French 80’s Indie movement).

Song 5 is a finale with a more Postgaze feel that draws longer, over 7 minutes

And now the (great) interview.

Who are the group members?

The band is comprised of Obermann and Faber. We are two veterans on the Parisian indie scene, played in too many bands to mention them all. Suffice to say we played almost everything, from French pop to Stoner.

How did you meet?

We met through friends and began to go to concerts together and talk about music. When you’re both fans of Prince and Deafheaven, there’s a lot in between to chew over!

How did you come up with your name?

FLEUR DU MAL, the name as well as the overall concept, was Obermann’s idea. We wanted to have something literary, which refers to French classicism with a hint of subversion thrown into it. And romanticism, too. Our nicknames, also, refer to literary figures.

What is your music about?

Our music is mostly about feelings and atmospheres as opposed to tangible things. We favour escapism and sentiment over reality. Besides, we prefer to have people make their own minds about our lyrics, which are very general and open to interpretation.

What are your goals as an artist artistically/commercially?

First, we want to play for ourselves and the people we love. Almost all good music, from Stax soul music to old school hip hop, has been created to bring people together, not to make money. That being said, we want to be heard by as many people as we can.

What are you trying to avoid as a band?

Doing things solely for commercial purposes, copying things that are fashionable. Being really indie and getting to a certain age brings you some perspective. We probably won’t get rich doing this so why bother doing things that get in the way of artistry just for success?

Why do you make the music you make? Is it in you? Is it your environment?

Both, we guess. We don’t believe in revelation, this idea that music comes at us naturally and that we’re just vessels for it. It’s first and foremost a lot of work. That being said, once we come up with a new idea for a song, things progress very quickly.

What inspire you for the music or for the Lyrics?

We are ardent fans of music. We listen to a lot of things and love “pop culture” in the largest sense of the term. For this project, specifically, we dug deep into the records we were listening to when in our teenage and early adult years: 90s alternative rock and metal, early post-rock, etc. Our lyrics, on the other hand, are very personal and always in French. It makes for an interesting encounter, we think.

Tell us what you are looking when trying to achieve your sounds. Do you experiment a lot or have a clear idea of what you want?

From the very start, we had a very precise idea of what we wanted to achieve sound-wise: a mix of shoegaze, post-rock and alternative metal. Very early in the creative process, we decided we would do this without live drums because a drummer tends to impose a specific aesthetics that would have undermined the overall coherence of our sound.

Also, because we sing in French and French has a specific sound that does not always match rock music so well, we wanted to have our voices slightly higher in the mix than what is usual heard in this type of music. This, we think, renders our sound more original than most non-Anglo-American Shoegaze and Indie Rock bands, who rarely sing in their native language.

One way to make sure our sound would have some personality was to record covers of our favourite French artists. We treated those songs as if they were originals and this helped us sharpen our sound.

Describe your palette of sound.

There is duality in everything we do. On the one hand, there are ethereal sounds, overdriven guitars that are drenched in delays and modulation effects.

On the other hand, there is a ground- shaking bass sound and heavily saturated rhythm guitars, both reminiscent of 90s alternative metal. Our gear is pretty straightforward, though.

We mainly use Boss and Electro-Harmonix pedals, either stock or modded, as well as a few fancier toys, but not too many. Drum machine sounds are kept as minimal and dry as possible, to provide a space of expression for anything else.

Who would you want as a dream producer, and why?

One of our pride has been to be able to produce a highly personal and recognizable sound without the help of a producer. We just have someone working on our mastering. But if we had to choose someone, and because we’re talking about dreams, here, why not Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross?

If you could guest on someone else’s album, who would it be and why? What would you play?

What would be fun to do would be to bring our heavily distorted and ethereal sound to artists that do not usually have this sort of musical universe, like a country or pop singer. If Etienne Daho, the godfather of modern French pop, wants us to produce his next record, we’re ready for this!

What musical skills would you like to acquire or get better at?

It’s great to play within your own limitations, right. That being said, we always like to try new things: practice palm-muted rhythmic parts at high tempos, for instance. Obermann likes to train playing technical prog death metal.

Which other musician/artist would you date?

We do not make music in order to get laid!

Is there a band that if they didn’t exist you wouldn’t be making the music you make?

Hard to name one but Alcest has been particularly influential to us. Neige has invented a style of music that merged the spirit of Black Metal with elements of Shoegaze and Dream Pop and there is no word to express how indebted we are to him. We strongly identify with his artistry and work ethic.

Also, he proved you can be French and make a strong impact abroad.

You are from France what are the advantages and inconvenient?

France has long had a bad image as a rock making country. John Lennon famously made fun of us by comparing French rock music and English food. But as English cuisine itself has gotten better and better throughout the recent period, French rock music has also improved a lot and does not pale anymore in comparison to the scenes in other European countries for instance.

Straightforward rock music sung in French will always sound quite appalling but French musicians are very good when it comes to step aside and mix rock with other elements, electronica for instance. Besides, French metal is now wonderful.

Bands like Gojira or Blut aus Nord are leaders in genres they sometimes contributed to forge. Simply put, there’s no inconvenient in being a French band, only advantages.

What are some places around the world that you hope to play with your band?

Anywhere possible .We had a couple of articles published by South American webzines. It would be great to play there.

When is the next album/EP due?

Our first EP was released in September on Shore Dive Records. The new one just came out , also on Shore DIve Records. It’s relatively brighter than the previous one. There will be a third, darker and metal-indebted one to complete the trilogy. Then, we’ll see… [it was released on Shoredive Records on 24th October]

Some artists you recommend.

Dead Horse One [hopefully soon on Noise Artist ndle], Computers Kill People, Venice Bliss, Brusque, Opium Dream Estate, Catherine Watine, La Féline, Pauline Drand, all good French bands/artists and, more importantly, people we love and respect as human beings. Check them out.

Anything else you want your fans to know?

We already revealed too much!

Where to find Fleur Du Mal:

Bandcamp

Facebook

Youtube

[ksck85]

Thoughts On Music From 2016

2016 took away David Bowie, Prince, and a bunch of other musical legends. This sucked, but it didn’t stop a ton of really good music from being released. This will be my annual list of albums I loved the most, but I’ve realized that for me, ranking them in a linear fashion is not the proper way to convey how i felt about each album. Just as the year has seasons, I also listen to music in seasons. Something I love in the beginning of the year isn’t going to sound as fresh and exciting later on, when I’ve latched onto another band or genre. So instead of counting down I’m going to just write organically about the music I listened to throughout the year.

Leaving off from last year’s blog, I was still extremely excited for ‘Gore’ by Deftones. The first single, “Prayers/Triangles” introduced a new sound. It was much more focused on the atmospheric, Cure-esque tones that have bridged their raw, heavy roots. Unfortunately, most of the songs on ‘Gore’ don’t match that balance of intensity and beauty. “Hearts/Wires,” “Xenon,” and “Phantom Bride” still hold up solidly... 

...Around this same time, Fallujah (who made my 2014 list) released 'Dreamless.’ I jammed this constantly for a couple weeks. I could not get enough of this album. I thought it not only followed 2014′s “The Flesh Prevails” but expanded on it. The production is cleaner, the songs are masterfully constructed (again), and it’s heavier than ever. They also continue to display amazing musicianship that ranges from face-melting technicality (“Scar Queen”) to layers of tranquility (“Dreamless”). This was definitely one of the finest releases of the year.

Every year there seem to be a few bands that come out of nowhere, or return from a long absence, or frankly, just intersect with my attention span for the first time. Enter Cult of Luna, with their Julie Christmas collab “Mariner.” To be clear, I was down with Cult of Luna before, but hadn’t really gone deep on any full length. I caught the first single, “The Wreck of S.S. Needle,” and decided to plow through the album when it was released; Another one I couldn’t stop listening to. Julie Christmas’ vocals haunt as they weave between screams of C.O.L.’s vocalist (yeah, not going to google and pretend I know his name), and the 5 songs dominate over 50 minutes...

...Then there is Thrice, a band I am intimately familiar with. ‘To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere’ is their first album since 2011, and the first one I paid attention to since 2005′s ‘Vheissu’ honestly. It took a few listens, but I eventually fell in love with this one. Dustin has an amazing touch with his scruffy folk voice, and can belt out choruses like on opening track “Hurricane” like nobody else. Dustin’s always had a way with words, and his songwriting prowess is on full display in “The Long Defeat” which is the most beautiful song on the album...

...And speaking of intersecting my attention span for the first time, where did this Gojira album come from?  I think Gojira has been suggested to me by Spotify as similar to just about every metal band I love, but I ignored them so many times my eyes started to glaze over. Until this year, when I said “I should probably just listen to this one song woa it’s actually good!” ‘Magma’ was a surprisingly (for me) great album. Following a progressive metal formula, they rely on big rhythms from guitar and drums and arc chanting vocals on top of them. The drums are the highlight, and they were recorded as such. This album flows through the drum kit, with the guitars following it’s lead. “Pray” is the best track and I am so glad I gave this band a chance.

The Summer months came, and I set my music from Spring to a simmer, sprinkling in some hip hop here and there. I find it harder to write about hip hop albums, but Kanye’s ‘The Life of Pablo’ was probably my favorite. A little bit of Schoolboy Q (Dope Dealer, doh!) and Aesop Rock were fun listens as well. While this was going on I began to heavily anticipate 2 albums  Opeth (!!!) had announced ‘Sorceress’, the next chapter in their rebirth as prog behemoths, and Meshuggah revealed that they were about to unleash 'The Violent Sleep of Reason' on an unsuspecting public. ‘Sorceress’ continued to preach the virtues of prog and justify Opeth’s move away from death metal. Mikael Åkerfeldt continues to develop, tweak, and improve the band’s sound and he keeps getting better with age. The title track “Sorceress” brings in some of the heavier sounds that some Opeth fans surely miss, but transforms them to align with where the band is today. It’s a pretty seamless transition, and it continues on “The Wilde Flowers.” My 2 favorite tracks are “Strange Brew” and the psuedo closer “Era.” “Strange Brew” blends psychedelic with their classic prog, building to a guitargasm climax at the end. Not much more to say, my favorite band put out another fine album.

I hardly had a chance to digest that Opeth record when Meshuggah’s arrived. Wow. Every Meshuggah album pummels, but this one felt heavier. The opener “Clockworks” contorts my mind. Thomas Haake cannot seriously be a human being with the way he plays the kit. I don’t normally put on Meshuggah for the melody or finesse, but I found both at the end of “Stifled” into the beginning of “Nostrum.”

Continuing metal’s resurgence in 2016, Insomnium! Man, I forgot about this band until I stumbled on one of the new tracks. ‘Winter’s Gate’ ended up being maybe my favorite metal release of the year. It’s pretty straightforward swedish melodic metal, but I was totally into it. This was my most air-guitared album of the year. 

After all that metal, I dug hard into Jimmy Eat World’s ‘Integrity Blues’ and determined that they are still one of the best hook-writing bands still out there. This album came with a purpose, like they wanted to prove a point. Definitely one of the best of 2016. The first time I heard “Pass the Baby” I was caught off guard. I didn’t know what to think. Is Jimmy a blues-rock band now? No, they just figured out how to throw a sick riff into all that beautiful melody. Nice! “Through” has to be the laziest song title ever, but it's also somehow catchier than the de facto hit “Sure and Certain.” 

By late November and early December, I’m rarely thinking too much about new music. It’s a weird time to release stuff. Do we consider it a 2016 release even though everyone already made their ‘best of’ lists? Anyway, good to see NIN making music again. ‘Not the Actual Events’ is an improvement over the disappointing ‘Hesitation Marks’ from 2014, but it’ll be overshadowed by the other surprise Trent dropped on Christmas: ‘The Fragile: Deviations 1′ which is only available on vinyl :(. The Fragile is one of my favorite albums of all time. Holds a very, very special place in my heart. For once I was actually wishing I was a vinyl collector. I did make my way through a youtube bootleg, and hearing all those songs as instrumentals is such a cool experience. The bonus unreleased stuff was great too, especially the alternate intro to “We’re In This Together Now.”

And that’s pretty much it. You made it. I can’t believe you actually read all that. In case you didn’t, here’s a running list of the albums I mentioned:

Deftones - Gore

Fallujah - Dreamless

Cult of Luna/Julie Christmas - Mariner

Thrice - To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere

Gojira - Magma

Kanye West - The Life Of Pablo

Opeth - Sorceress

Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep Of Reason

Insomnium - Winter’s Gate

Jimmy Eat World - Integrity Blues

NIN - Not The Actual Events & The Fragile: Deviations 1