What we can learn from listening to this album is that Metal in English is cool, but so is Metal in Portuguese, and in French, Japanese, etc. Choose whichever language you want, the important thing is that it's well-made and heavy.”
What we can learn from listening to this album is that Metal in English is cool, but so is Metal in Portuguese, and in French, Japanese, etc. Choose whichever language you want, the important thing is that it's well-made and heavy.”
By Lucas Gabriel
Continuing our journey around the world through Heavy Metal, our next stop is France. Land of the Eiffel Tower, Napoleon, and the Nouvelle Vague. And also the land of Trust, H-Bomb, Warning, and more recently Alcest and Gojira. And especially the gem that will be discussed next, Satan Jokers and their classic album Les Fils Du Métal .
The year is 1983 and the NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) is still going strong, but wait a minute, the NWOBHM is a British movement and we're talking about a band from France, isn't something wrong? Hold on a minute, my friend, we have to consider that this new wave of bands was so important and influential that it transcended geographical barriers and gave new life to Metal in various parts of the world, showing that there was room for bands of this style after the explosion of Punk.
After a demo released in 1982, Satan Jokers' debut album came out the following year on the Vertigo label. Les Fils Du Métal features Renauld Hantson on drums, Laurent Bernat (who passed away in 2004) on bass, Stéphane Bonneau on guitar, and Pierre Guiraud on vocals. Satan Jokers' sound is that traditional Heavy Metal with Hard Rock influences, full of attitude, melody, and the characteristic groove of the 80s.
If even the sound of Portuguese singing sounds strange to some Brazilians at first, imagine hearing it sung in French. Think about the situation where you're listening to an awesome guitar riff and when the vocals come in you get the impression that the singer is making a pout (a bad joke about how to speak French you need to make a pout with your mouth, forgive me).
This is a major distinguishing feature of Satan Jokers: the vocalist, Pierre Guiraud, sings all his lines in his native language. They even have versions of their songs sung in English (which happen to be included as bonus tracks on the CD edition I own), but it's much more interesting and even fun to realize that Heavy Metal is a universal language that can be interpreted in various ways and adapts to its location.
However, when we first hear it, the shock is immediate. After all, it's not a language we usually hear a band use in their music, since most of the Metal/Rock made worldwide is sung, consumed, and exported in English. After the initial strangeness, we see that the sound is well-made and that the language used fits well with the instrumental, not being a gimmick to differentiate themselves from other bands that only distracts us while listening, but something that adds to the sound of Satan Jokers. In the end, we're even risking singing along, even without understanding anything they're saying. It's quality heavy metal, and that's what matters.
And speaking of vocals, the interplay of voices in some tracks is quite interesting. Making good use of backing vocals, the band brings us catchy melodies and those characteristic choruses. Listen, for example, to the track "Derrière Les Portes Closes" where the chorus reminds us of something similar to Queen.
The instrumental work is also noteworthy, with precise riffs interspersed with some melodic moments. The clean production also helps. It may seem simplistic nowadays, but for the standards of the time it's good, allowing you to clearly hear all the instruments.
If you want to check out this band's sound, it's easy to find their music and even some live performances on YouTube. But if you, like me, prefer to have physical copies, the label Axe Killer Records released it in a box set along with their second album, Trop Fou Pour Toi . It's a bit hard to find, but it's worth the money.
What we can learn from listening to this album is that Metal in English is cool, but so is Metal in Portuguese, and in French, Japanese, etc. Choose whichever language you want; the important thing is that it's well-made and heavy. And yes, there's good music in every era and place.
*This text was written by a Wikimate and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the site's authors.
