Les Légions Noires

Les Légions Noires (also known as The Black Legions in English, or simply abbreviated to LLN) is a movement of French underground black metal musicians and their bands, centered mostly around the city of Brest, in Brittany. The bands involved limited their releases to very small numbers (often just enough to get to the other circle members), and distributed them among friends and close workers. The collective was primarily active between 1993 and 1997.

History

Possibly the circle was formed in the late 1980s, early 1990s, in response to the supposed Norwegian "Black Metal Inner Circle". According to a 2005 series in Terrorizer magazine on the history of black metal, "A bunch of corpsepainted characters, rumoured to be drawn from such acts as Mütiilation, Torgeist and Vlad Tepes named themselves the 'Black Legions' as a tribute to the so-called 'Black Mafia' Norwegian BM heroes Darkthrone and Burzum, who were supposedly ready to terrorize Christians a couple of years before." The first recordings of LLN members came about in the early 1990s, and their influence was acknowledged in the same issue of Terrorizer: "One should never count out France, primarily as the home of the inscrutably influential Black Legions of ridiculous rawness during the mid-90s."

Regarding their influences, Wlad Drakksteim of Vlad Tepes referred, in an interview with Petrified magazine, to Hellhammer and especially Bathory: "Every True Black Metal Horde should play in old Bathory style." When asked about the "Norwegian Black Metal Mafia", he said, "Norwegian mafia did lots of 'bad' things to this world. With Euronymous' death MAYHEM is definitely dead and it's better like that as it will help Black Metal to return to darkness. [Euronymous] must be in peace now so I don't complain [lament?] him. And about Varg Vikernes (BURZUM) I don't have any opinion. WE have OUR opinions and he certainly knows them so..."

In 1991, Meyhna'ch (real name William Roussel) founded the band Mütiilation in Montpellier. That autumn, Vordb Báthor Ecsed formed the ambient project Moëvöt in Bergerac. In 1992, Vordb and Meyhna'ch discovered each other and began corresponding. In early 1993, Vordb Báthor Ecsed founded the project Bèlkètre. Also that year, Vlad Tepes, a project by Wlad Drakksteim and Vorlok Drakksteim, emerged in Brest.

Meanwhile, black metal was gaining traction in the European metal scene (particularly in France). The murder of Euronymous by Varg Vikernes further fueled the hype around the style. Numerous death metal bands declared themselves black death metal and began fusing the two genres. Vordb at the time believed that this was threatening the very existence of black metal and decided to fight the trend. In summer 1993, Vordb and Meyhna'ch formed an occult musical alliance. The members decided to live in the forest, away from society, and devote their time to music. The movement was named Les Légions Noires.^{[citation needed]}

Vlad Tepes have been outspoken in the goals of their music: "We are Black Legions of Satan, we are the immortal warriors of Black imperial blood. We are here to pervert christian worms and they shall face the Black holocaust. It's near!"

Discography

• Mütiilation: Hail Satanas We Are the Black Legions (1994)
• Vlad Tepes: War Funeral March (1994)
• Vlad Tepes / Belketre: March to the Black Holocaust (1995)
• Mütiilation: Vampires of Black Imperial Blood (1995)
• Vlad Tepes / Torgeist: Black Legions Metal (1996)
• Belketre: Ambre Zuèrkl Vuordhrévarhtre (1996)
• Vlad Tepes: La Morte Lune (1997)

Bands and projects

Notes

References

• Hemery, Mikael (January 2007). "Celestia Interview". Celtmik Metal Zine. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
• Käseberg, Patrick (2006-10-31). "Des Fischreihers schwarze Gedanken #09". Metal1.info (in German). Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 2008-10-23.
• Thrazar, Iormungand (2006-06-01). "Drakkar Productions Interview". Guts of Darkness (in French). Retrieved 2008-10-23.