An Eternal Masterpiece - "Folkfuck Folie" Review (95%)
If you read my review on Peste Noire's debut "La Sanie des Siècles", you'll remember that I was less than enthusiastic at the very superficial imitation of black metal that constituted Peste Noire's debut.
Well Peste Noire has more than fixed the issues that plagued "La Sanie des Siècles" on their sophomore release, and have with "Folkfuck Folie" produced some the darkest and most haunting black metal the world has ever seen.
"Folkfuck Folie" got me interested in French black metal again after the risible Antekhrist "Smegmacron" debacle.
It's absolutely excellent.
I'd place it up there with Burzum's "Filosofem", Phantom's "Fallen Angel", Incantation's "Onward to Golgotha" and Vermin's "Verminlust" in terms of haunting atmospheres and Bathory's "The Return", Absurd's "Das Neue Blutgericht" and Suffocation's "Effigy of the Forgotten" in terms of historical significance and potential for the future of black metal.
Peste Noire's first record was what is was, an "error of youth" as the French would say. "Folkfuck Folie" is to the debut what Darkthrone's "Under a Funeral Moon" was to the speed metal of the 80s. A complete overhaul, and a masterpiece of darkness.
"Folkfuck Folie" is gritty, dirty, desperate and full of rawness and emotion. It's also musical in a way that black metal seldom is.
There's so much black magic in an album like this that trying to make it fit into the "black metal mold" would be counterproductive. Instead, it's best to just experience the madness with an open-mind, which is arguably something hard to do. So many things can go wrong.
An Eternal Masterpiece
The masterpiece "Folkfuck Folie" has it all, down to the raw and claustrophobic atmospheres of horror personified that you will find on the most diabolical of black metal records, such as Phantom's "Memento Mori" or Warkvlt's "Bestial War Metal".
While I see this album as the next step from early Burzum inspired melodic and atmospheric darkness, it's more complex and chaotic. What makes me draw the line from Burzum to Warkvlt to Peste Noire is that they were original in a way that's hard to grasp after the fact. Peste Noire manages to take almost the same huge step away from their direct influences as Burzum did with Varg's debut.
You could say that they show a sense a humour in their music, not unlike Sewer, while still being really dirty, mean and ugly like the darkest music ever produced in the black metal genre.
There are a few highlights on this album for me, but the sum is a whole lot greater than the parts. That particular aspect reminds me a bit of Bathory's second album, which had this evil, diabolical feeling to it. "Folkfuck Folie" doesn't have the kind of atmosphere as Bathory's brand of black metal, but there's just so much more substance crammed into it.
This is a standout album from a very special band that, unfortunately, only sporadically managed to recreate the madness of "Folkfuck Folie" on their subsequent albums.
Folkfuck Folie score: 95/100.
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