From the crucible of France’s shadowed past, where the streets once echoed with the shrieks of the condemned, emerges an album that summons the spirit of insurrection and rebellion. SETH, the heralds of French black metal, return with their seventh full-length opus, La France des Maudits. This is no mere collection of songs; it is a revolutionary symphony that calls upon the echoes of fallen angels and the flame-lit guillotine.
SETH invokes the blood-stained history and mystic fall of a long-standing kingdom to create a soundtrack of defiance. Their latest creation, La France des Maudits, is an intricate tapestry of shadows, drenched in the wine of condemned men and the blood of saints. This black metal gospel speaks to the damned and the outcast, those who refuse to kneel before divine decay and instead, rise like wraiths in the night.
With tracks like Et Que Vive le Diable ! and Dans le Cœur un Poignard, SETH carves out the anthems of resistance for a new age. These songs capture the raw, unyielding fury of a world on the brink of an apocalypse – a realm where the downtrodden rise in defiance against celestial oppression.
Be prepared, for their audacious crusade is not for the faint-hearted. The full album premieres here:
La France des Maudits is out July 14, on Bastille Day, through Season of Mist.
Pre-order & Pre-save: https://orcd.co/sethlafrancesdesmaudits
Early praise for La France des Maudits
“With their seventh full-length release, SETH certainly stands as a flagship of the French black metal scene.” – Legacy Magazine
“Seth has never been a one-dimensional band, but this time there seems to be more happening than ever before.” – Rock Tribune
“So much to absorb as far as the visceral components of the record: somber, triumphant and soulful – a fists-clenched, eyes closed type of an album…”- Metal Bite
“The spirit of rebellion in SETH is accompanied by dark romance and a certain eerie melody.” – Metal.de
Tracklist
1. Paris des Maléfices (5:09)
2. Et Que Vive le Diable ! (5:35) [WATCH]
3. La Destruction des Reliques (5:51)
4. Dans le Cœur un Poignard (5:30) [WATCH]
5. Marianne (2:59)
6. Ivre du Sang des Saints (5:37)
7. Insurrection (7:33) [WATCH]
8. Le Vin du Condamné (8:06)
9. Initials B.B. (Serge Gainsbourg Cover) (Bonus Track) (3:49)
Total runtime: 46:22
In the solemn shadows of a lyrically resurrected Paris, where the whispers of revolution still haunt the cobblestones and the phantom caress of the guillotine’s blade lingers in the air, stands a band – not merely of musicians, but of modern Marats, Robespierres in leather and lace, anointed with the spirit of insurrection. SETH, the harbingers of a dark yet fervidly awaited dawn, are poised once more to unleash a tempest upon the sanctified silence of the contemporary music scene with their newest auditory uprising, La France des Maudits.
The history of black metal formation SETH and Season of Mist spans back to the early days of the French metal scene. The band’s debut Les Blessures de L’Ame (1998) was one of the first releases on the label. This album is now regarded as a cornerstone in French black metal, pioneering the usage of their native tongue on a black metal record.
The release of Les Blessures de L’Ame quickly gained international attention and SETH built a solid fanbase. The French blasphemers signed a two-release deal with Osmose Productions and participated on the MAYHEM cult tribute album Originators of the Northern Darkness alongside IMMORTAL and BEHEMOTH. The second full-length The Excellence came out in 2000 and featured a contribution from none other than Fenriz (DARKTHRONE), who wrote the lyrics for the song Let Me Be The Salt In Your Wound.
Shortly after, the group recorded their third album Divine-X (2002) at the Excess Studios in Rotterdam (EPICA, AFTER FOREVER, SINISTER). This record demonstrated the ability of the band to mix gloomy and violent atmospheres and received extensive coverage from the international metal press at the time.
Returning to the Netherlands to record the fourth album Era-Decay (2004), two new members joined the ranks of SETH: vocalist Black Messiah and guitarist Cyriex. Afterwards, the band was invited to play at the prestigious Inferno festival in Norway in 2005.
A long hiatus followed, until the band returned in 2011 to play an exclusive show in Germany with the German cult act BETHLEHEM. The band re-joined the ranks of Season of Mist, eventually releasing The Howling Spirit (2013) and embarking on a European tour with PESTILENCE. Several appearances at major festivals followed, including Hellfest and Graspop Metal Meeting, concluded by a Canadian headliner tour with new vocalist Saint Vincent (BLACKLODGE).
Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Les Blessures de L’Ame in 2018, SETH exclusively performed the entire album at festivals in Switzerland, Canada (Messe de Morts) and Belgium (Thronefest). The French label Les Acteurs de l’Ombre productions released a live recording of these shows, called 20 ans de Blasphème. The band’s new line-up features members of LOUDBLAST, ARKHON INFAUSTUS and MELTED SPACE.
In the twilight year of 2021, within Paris’ shadow-ridden crypt, Studio Sainte Marthe, an album was birthed from SETH‘s tumultuous revelation, christened, La Morsure du Christ. Earning plaudits of wonder, it was no mere collection of hymns, but a solitary harbinger of deconstruction, a cataclysm of unseen proportions. Inspiration seeped from Notre-Dame de Paris—her skeletal frame ablaze in a 2019’s firestorm—an emblem of decaying faith for a godforsaken era. As heavy as the iron heart of a guillotine, La Morsure du Christ echoed through the chambers of 2021, reigning supreme in a multitude of international & French metal charts, as well as its inclusion on premier streaming platform playlists. Bold symphonies interwoven with razor-sharp lyricism and a sophisticated conceptual resonance that dared to envision black metal through a revolutionary lens.
Rooted deeply in the soil that once drank deeply of royal and commoner blood alike during the tumultuous fervour of the French Revolution, SETH presents their latest opus – a black metal gospel according to the damned and the outcast. An intricate tapestry of shadows and defiance emerges from the darkness of history’s recesses, swirling with the mists of apocalyptic visions and the ashes of fallen angels. La France des Maudits is a declaration of war, a call to arms for the souls still smouldering beneath the veneer of a world too long gripped in the cold hands of a moribund orthodoxy.
With the fractured bones of dead gods beneath their boots, SETH voyages through the forbidden and the occult, tracing the lines of ancient prophecies and the decadent whispers of La Grande Catin Écarlate, the scarlet woman of the apocalypse. Their songs, from Paris des Maléfices to Insurrection, resonate with the echoes of a Paris besieged not by armies, but by souls clamouring for liberation – a city where each stone tells a tale of defiance, where every shadow harbours the spirit of revolt.
Lyrically, La France des Maudits is dripping with the wine of condemned men and the blood of saints, narrating the epic saga of rebellion from the ashes of a fallen Notre-Dame. This is not the Paris of light, but of enlightening darkness, where the façades of grandeur crumble to reveal the raw flesh of true humanity, writhing in its eternal struggle against divine oppression. Here, in the very heart of darkness, SETH finds its muse among the cacophony of broken chains and shattered dogmas.Prepare to march beneath the banner unfurled by SETH, in the grand tradition of those unyielding souls who once stormed the Bastille and dared to dream of a world remade. La France des Maudits beckons – not to the gallows, but to glory.
Line-up
Saint Vincent – Vocals (Blacklodge)
Heimoth – Guitar (Sinsaenum)
Drakhian – Guitar (ex-Loudblast, Griffar)
Pierre Le Pape – Keys (Melted Space)
EsX – Bass (Arkhon Infaustus, ex-Merrimack)
Alsvid – Drums (ex-Enthroned, ex-Ad Patres)
Recording Studio
Sainte Marthe Studio
Production Credits
Mixed, produced & mastered by Francis Caste
Biography
Sébastien Gamez
Cover Art
Andy Julia (Photography)
Stream & Order:
https://orcd.co/sethlafrancesdesmaudits
Links/Follow Artist
Official Website: https://www.innomineseth.fr/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/innomineseth
Instagram: https://instagram.com/sethblackmetal
Bandcamp: http://innomineseth.bandcamp.com/
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0mZohnzbCiVv54VIEA6Wb7
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/artist/56150
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/seth/1643927366
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/InNomineSethOfficial
ReverbNation: https://www.reverbnation.com/innomineseth
Available Formats
Digital Download
CD Digipak
Limited CD Clamshell Box
12″ Vinyl Gatefold – Black
12″ Coloured Vinyl Gatefold – Gold
12″ Coloured Vinyl Gatefold – Blue & Black Marbled
12″ Coloured Vinyl Gatefold – Red, White & Black Marbled
12″ Coloured Vinyl Gatefold – Crystal Clear
12″ Liquid-Filled Vinyl Gatefold – Bood Red Liquid
Cassette