French black metal vanguard SETH are unveiling a radical reinterpretation of Serge Gainsbourg’s infamous 1968 ode to Brigitte Bardot. Originally steeped in orchestral melancholy and sensual decadence, Seth’s cover of “Initials B.B.” emerges as a ceremonial descent through the fractured heart of post-Christian France—a realm haunted by divine absence, erotic delirium and the relics of fallen gods.
Watch the music video for “Initials B.B.” on the Season of Mist YouTube channel
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Seth’s latest album La France des Maudits is out now on Season of Mist.
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https://orcd.co/sethlafrancesdesmaudits
“Initials B.B.” emerges as a new chapter in Seth’s ongoing rite of desecration. Falling on Bastille Day and the first anniversary of the French black metal institution’s latest album, the song deepens the image that the band have been conjuring of a France scorched by desire and spiritual collapse. As the republic recalls its hour of uprising, the band conjure another insurrection: one of shadows and silhouettes, where sound and image bleed together in an unholy communion.
As with the iconoclastic cosmology of La France des Maudits, Seth reimagine Brigette Bardot. In their blackened visage, she is as a mythic seductress, a corrupted Marianne veiled in red, muse to apostasy and forbidden glamour. Where Gainsbourg once sighed, the band now roars, threading the actresses memory into the album’s scarlet lineage of insurgent saints, diabolical poets and cast-out lovers.
The video for “Initials B.B.” was created by Pierre Reynard (@pierrereynard)
More praise for La France Des Maudits
“A well-balanced and finely produced record that honours the legacy of French black metal.” – Metal Hammer DE
“The raw fury of Saint Vincent’s voice and the dark atmosphere that envelops the songs result in a robust and compelling portion of Black Metal.” – Legacy DE
“La France des Maudits is immediately, inarguably Seth. Brazen, jangling tremolo riffing, narrated by now recognizable biting rasps and snarls, a fondness for just a little theatre by way of string synths and chorals. But rather than revel in the glory of La Morsure’s ire, Seth already show their willingness to evolve” – Angry Metal Guy (4/5)
“Exceptionally well-balanced and aesthetically pleasing, shifting gracefully between menacing or triumphant” – Metal Sucks (4/5)
“An ode to rebellions of times long gone and present but with a sinister connotation.” – Rock Music Raider
“A burning monument to 90s black metal, using the 2019 Notre‑Dame fire and the 235th anniversary of the start of the French Revolution as their inspiration.” – Distorted Sound Magazine UK
“Seth makes the French Revolution its central theme on La France des Maudits, a seventh album that follows faithfully in the footsteps of its predecessor, La Morsure du Christ.” – Rituel Magazine FR
“Perhaps the best album Seth has ever delivered!” – Rock Tribune BE
“Once again we are faced with a work that is both dark and elegant—black metal rendered in such varied forms it surprises at every turn.” – Rock Hard IT“I don’t know how it’s possible, but this album feels like an upgrade to the Frenchmen’s already iconic previous opus. Possibly the finest work of their career.” – Scream Magazine NO
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)
5. Marianne (2:59)
6. Ivre du Sang des Saints (5:37)
7. Insurrection (7:33)
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)
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