It is not hard to conjecture that black metal and classical music can make a good connection. If you distill things down to passion, both will have oodles of it. One Frenchman Hazard attempted to take this linkage to the extreme in the process of creation of Les Chants du Hasard. Without using traditional instruments, like guitars, bass and drums, he created a series of chants through orchestrally arranged pieces. I don’t honestly think that Hazard commanded the use of an orchestra, and most of his sounds are probably not natural instruments (my guess purely), but the result has been pretty intriguing and quite mind boggling.

Speaking of black metal, Les Chants du Hasard don’t have much of it in its purest form. There is a bit of extreme vocals here, but vocalization on the albums mostly comes in the form of multilayered voices, both male and female (or so it seems), all of it creating an impression of dark monks or demon screeches powering through the phantasmagoria which is the music behind Les Chants du Hasard. Synth or real, call this dark classical brass orchestra twisted to the extreme, one step away from cacophony, yet projecting ominous religious experience (Le Vieilleisse), leaning over the sacrificial altar covered in black oozing substance. This is funeral doom without riffs, tragic procession to hell (L’Homme), cantata or oratory written by a genius operatic mind on the verge of mental breakdown. With rare percussive moments, some of the melodies, if I can call them that, project utmost heartbreak (L’Enfant). All the while the voices in the head dictate, prod, croak and whisper, subliminally pushing the listener over the edge (Le Die). Sometimes they lie in wait, like a beast in a lair (L’Enfant), and only rarely the movement accelerates for this demonic whirlwind to go beyond plodding tempo (end of Le Die).

One of my favorite movies is Devil’s Advocate (with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves). In this movie, in its most philosophical moments, standing on the precipice of horror, music plays which is plain disturbing. It speaks of impending disaster of which there is no protection, something that is inevitable, as inevitable as evil itself. Les Chats du Hasard may very well be the soundtrack to more avantgarde Devil’s Advocate. Too bad Hazard wasn’t around in 1997 when the movie was shot to be contracted for the sound script. He has the feeling captured completely and would have pushed the envelope even further in his merging of classical and extreme.