| Story: Ralph Greco, Jr.
French blackened orchestral/operatic ensemble LES CHANTS DU HASARD will release the stunning new full-length, Livre Quart, on June 21st, today unveiling the record’s first single and preorders.
An endeavor conceptualized and composed by primary member, Hazard, LES CHANTS DU HASARD was spawned from the notion that metal is a musical style that deals with extreme emotions such as anger, violence, darkness, and despair. The ultimate objective is to initiate an aural experience of those emotions, something more than just music, that would submerge the listener.
Having dwelled for more than fifteen years within the black metal scene, Hazard released his Livre Premier debut in 2017 under the LES CHANTS DU HASARD banner. He laid there the foundations of his own take of dark music and defined a new genre: “Extreme opera” – a sinister approach to orchestral music with elements of black metal. Livre Second was released two years later followed by 2021’s critically lauded Livre Troisième, with each new opus adding a new stone to Hazard’s edifice.
Wrote Decibel Magazine of Livre Troisième, “Combining neoclassical instrumentation and operatic vocal performances with blackened screams, songs like ‘Chant III – Le Reflet’… channel a mood that feels simultaneously elegant, epic, and evil. There is a cinematic quality to the instrumentation, lending the song a grandiose feeling.” Invisible Oranges concurred noting, “Without distorted sound, Livre Troisième offers a nuanced look into what exactly makes metal… metal, beyond the superficialities of post-production and armies of pedals. While still just as haunting as a black metal record, if not more, Livre Troisième’s far more textured, harmonic approach relies entirely on the utilized instruments’ natural sounds and extended sound range to create possessed, enchanting music.” Added Treble, “The album is a dark and ominous set of choral and neoclassical pieces that evoke a sense of doom without being doom metal, their sonic atmosphere more cinematic than heavy. There’s an undeniable beauty about the album, yet it’s austere and often harrowing… intense stuff, but mesmerizing all the same…”
Hazard returned to his black metal roots in 2023 and released Malivore under the moniker Hasard. Described by many as “nightmarish” and listed among many best albums of 2023, Malivore made use of Hazard’s symphonic skills to apply them to black metal, as a mirror to LES CHANTS DU HASARD.
And in 2024, Hazard and LES CHANTS DU HASARD returns with a new album, Livre Quart. Featuring professional lyric singers Laura and Christian respectively as soprano and tenor interacting with Hazard’s scorched voice, Livre Quart traverses far darker and more vicious shores than previous offerings.
Offers Hazard, “I created LES CHANTS DU HASARD following a vision of a crawling and ugly opera, in which some light could be found, the same way that [French poet Charles] Baudelaire found beauty in ugliness. This idea has been with me on a daily basis since 2016, when I decided to give it a try and began composing Livre Premier. Livre Quart is the closest I’ve come to realizing this vision.”
As a precursor to the release, Hazard offers up the harrowing sounds of “Parmi Les Poussières,” noting of the magnificently disquieting track, “This song is the fastest and the most straightforward. That’s the reason it is the first song of the album, as it encapsulates what I wanted to do on Livre Quart: a more violent atmosphere and a contrast to Livre Troisième, which had more of a nocturnal and introspective feeling.” |
