Nom d'une pipe!

If the past albums by Pensees Nocturnes merely flirted with neo-classical elements, Nom D’une Pipe! has then reached third base and is heading up to the bloke’s hotel room. This fourth offering from Vaerohn contains all the hanky-panky from the first two meetings, but accentuates it to its almost extreme level. Not that you’ll find me complaining, that is.

On the debut album Vacuum, the classical moments were mostly filled with piano sections littered about the place, and the vocals there were a tougher pill to swallow. The next one Grotesque introduced a more neo-classical flair to its arrangements, all the while still retaining what was shown in the debut. Here, those unmetal arrangements are increased further, and the vocals have become slightly less strained. For the purists of the genre, this album will seem like garbage, and in that case I would suggest sticking to the first album in particular. For the others, like myself, who enjoy a little avant-garde in the mix, Nom D’une Pipe! could possibly rub you the right way.

To understand how the music has decreased in black metal and increased in anything else, you need to look at the ratio of each. “Le Marrionnetiste” begins with ticking clocks and horns which vaguely sound like clown music. After some black metal, it then devolves into jazz with Vaerohn saying “diddly-di-di…” in the background. Later on the neo-classical elements take centre stage with some piano and softer, jazz-like drums and bass, accompanied with Vaerohn’s higher clean vocals. If none of that sounds any good to you, then Nom D’une Pipe! isn’t the kind of album you’re after. To mention every interlude of avant-garde here is useless, but each song contains some sort of interjection of jazz or French neo-classical bizarreness. “Le Berger,” possibly the most black metal of the lot here, still contains some touches of what Vaerohn is going for.

It’s a mystery how these strange elements fit together, but none of it seems contrived or added for the hell of it. It’s not an easy feat to take influences from many other sources and create songs where they all live harmoniously together, but Pensees Nocturnes manages to do just that. Not many bands can pull this off, so credit where it’s due for Vaerohn and his ability to utilise what’s needed in each song, no matter how left-field it may be. “Il a Mange Le Soliel” starts off with a namedrop of ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and “La Chimere” begins with what sounds like French stand-up comedy. I’m sure if I spoke the language it would be utterly hilarious, but this shows the weirdness at play, and how oddball inclusions such as these tend to simply work in the wider frame that is Nom D’une Pipe!. I won’t even mention what goes on in the closer “Bonne Biere et Bonne Chere” – you’ll just have to make up your own mind if this is worthy to be on the album or if it’s too bombastic.

As far as the regular instruments are concerned, the guitar riffs are pretty good for the type of choppy style the music conveys. The black metal riffs are faster and heavier, and the lighter riffs sound genuinely spacey. The riffs, as a general rule, are overshadowed by everything else going on, though, so they’re obviously not the central connector of the songs themselves. The drumming is more central to the flow of the music, and there’s a lot of intricate hits and jazz finesse in the playing. For those looking for blast beats aplenty, turn away, since they are sparing (a few in “L’Androgyne,” for example, when the music speeds up, but even then it’s scarce). Generally, though, the guitars and drums are little more than backdrop for the other elements presented; vehicles only for the neo-classical and semi-jazz oddities that Nom D’une Pipe! delivers.

Whether this is something you’d be into depends on how flexible you are with the majority addition of music that isn’t black metal. However, if you’re into other French unusual bands like Spektr and Wormfood, I can’t see you disliking this unorthodox piece of…well, whatever music it wants to be lumped in with. I can appreciate why this will be shunned, but for those people like me who can get right into this, it’s highly recommended.