Les Légions Noires (also known as The Black Legions in English, or simply abbreviated to LLN) was a movement of French underground

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

musicians and their bands, centered mostly around the city of Brest, in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

. 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.

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 Mütiilation is a French black metal project, traditionally known as a group, but later slimmed to a solo act that consisted solely of founder William "Meyhna'ch" Roussel who maintained activity under the name until its closing in 2017. He late ...

, Torgeist and

Vlad Tepes Vlad III, commonly known as Vlad the Impaler ( ) or Vlad Dracula (; ; 1428/31 – 1476/77), was Voivode of Wallachia three times between 1448 and his death in 1476/77. He is often considered one of the most important rulers in Wallachian hi ...

named themselves the 'Black Legions' as a tribute to the so-called 'Black Mafia' Norwegian BM heroes

Darkthrone Darkthrone is a Norwegian black metal band hailing from Kolbotn, Akershus. Formed in 1986 as a death metal band named Black Death, in 1991, Darkthrone transitioned to a black metal style influenced by Bathory (band), Bathory and Celtic Frost and ...

and

Burzum Burzum (; ) is a Norwegian music project founded by former Mayhem member Varg Vikernes in 1991. Although Burzum never played live performances, it became a staple of the early Norwegian black metal scene and is considered one of the most infl ...

, 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. uronymousmust be in peace now so I don't complain ament?him. And about Varg Vikernes (BURZUM) I don't have any opinion. WE have OUR opinions and he certainly knows them so..." The best-known bands of the LLN are Mütiilation (the one-man band formed by William Roussel, also known as Meyhna'ch), Belketre, Torgeist, and Vlad Tepes. Vlad Tepes have been outspoken in the goals of their black metal: "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!" While none of the bands involved in Les Légions Noires released any new material from 1998 to 2014, Belketre released a new EP entitled ''Ryan Èvn-A'' in 2015. It is unclear if the bands were inactive during that time or simply preferred not to release their material to the public.

Discography

: '' Hail Satanas We Are the Black Legions'' (1994) *

: ''War Funeral March'' (1994) * Vlad Tepes / Belketre: '' March to the Black Holocaust'' (1995) * Mütiilation: ''

Vampires of Black Imperial Blood ''Vampires of Black Imperial Blood'' is the debut album by French black metal group Mütiilation. The album is noted for being the first full length release in the Les Légions Noires movement, it was also the first full-length CD publication fro ...

'' (1995) * Vlad Tepes / Torgeist: '' Black Legions Metal'' (1996) * Belketre: ''Ambre Zuèrkl Vuordhrévarhtre'' (1996) * Vlad Tepes: ''La Morte Lune'' (1997)

Bands and projects

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Les Legions Noires Black metal Music scenes Music of France French rock music