Seth: The Godless Path
France has often been one of the most overlooked countries for black metal. The scene a couple of decades ago left the genre in the depths of the underground, with bands lacking the attention from labels that they should have been receiving, their focus being more on those across seas. That is, until now. The country is dominating the bleak genre that is often associated with Scandinavia, especially in its beginnings, and bands such as THE GREAT OLD ONES, REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER and AU-DESSUS are ensuring the attention won’t be elsewhere again. Now, we get to speak with one of the most influential bands in French black metal, a band who has paved the way for the aforementioned to make their mark, a band who has been there from the beginning, SETH.
Since their debut release Les Blessures de L’âme over two decades ago, the band have fought tirelessly to be heard. With the release of their brand new album, which reflects their debut as close as possible, La Morsure du Christ, they say that the response this time is deserved for the scene. “The French black metal scene, I would say after years of hard-work and passion, it’s just getting known and recognised but I think it’s deserved,” comments vocalist Saint Vincent.
Although it’s a welcome recognition that France is being put on the map for its contributions to the genre, the attention to the country for SETH stems a little deeper. When the band released their debut, they were a band who stuck to their roots and didn’t conform to the English language, instead singing in their native French tongue. The move saw the band become one of the most influential bands in the scene, even to this day, and now in 2021 their revisit to that time brings a sense of nostalgia.
“In 1998 we were the first to release a black metal album that was sung in French, maybe not the first, but the one with the most impact,” guitarist/keyboardist Heimoth says. “Releasing our first album on Season of Mist, which was a very unknown label at the time took its toll. So far, we are recognised as one of the avant-garde black metal bands to put forward French lyrics and French singing.” Saint Vincent continues, “it’s a great pleasure to bring back the French lyrics, back to its original artistic move.”
The French culture is an important stance to SETH, they’re heavily influenced by their home, something with even reflects in their new album. La Morsure du Christ translated has a double meaning; The Bite of Christ and Christ’s Death Is Certain (phonetically). The inspiration came from the fire of Notre-Dame de Paris, an event that only two years ago shocked the world and left the religious world at its knees. Whilst the world watched on and the people of Paris stood with the only option of watching the cathedral burn, to SETH it symbolised something other than a great tragedy, even using it as their album artwork.
Saint Vincent explains in-depth about the choice. “There were three points in the intention of using Notre-Dame de Paris as our cover. The first one is roots because we wanted to go back to the time of our roots, so black metal in the 90s and obviously the typical representation of black metal was a burning church, it was really a way of going back to that. Secondly we used that monument because it’s a French monument known worldwide. It’s kind of a French symbol, as a French band singing in French lyrics, it was quite strong to use this monument to get connected to the French spirit. Finally and the most important is because we saw the blaze of Notre-Dame as a real strong symbol of the ending of spirituality in the western world. For example the Twin Towers is a very strong symbol that shocked all the world, on the religious side, this is a similar symbol as strong as we think. Of course we were all raised in the western world where spirituality is getting weaker and weaker everyday since we were born. This is not just a strong event, this is resuming what has happened over the past decade and it is the start of the new world and I think it is a very strong symbol. You either like it or dislike it, it’s there and it’s strong and important enough to be the cover.”
Regardless of your opinion when it comes to SETH’s choice of symbolism or belief in that we are seeing the fall of Christ and becoming a Godless world, their influence cannot be disputed. It’s one thing to have paved the way for many bands that came after them in the black metal scene, but it’s another to still be able to carry that torch over two decades after their debut release. La Morsure du Christ sees the band return to their foundations in more than just music. Their intense honesty and pride in how their culture has influenced them is admirable and a reflection on why they have been and will continue to be one of the greatest black metal bands to ever come out of France.
La Morsure du Christ is out now via Season of Mist.
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