Good rock bands from..........

[kittybeast]

So last night I'm watching a movie. And this kid has moved to France to go to school and he's writing a letter to his mom describing his new friends and what they do.... like argue about how France could never produce a great rock band...... this got me thinking....are their any rock bands from France?? I certainly am not familiar with any nor have I ever heard a bands name who is from France. Anyone know of any?????????

 

[carnut]

Fang , take a shot !!!!!

There certainly were and are cool Metal Bands ,this is a cool new(er) band from France;
www.myspace.com/lalumetal

 

[TheWhisper]

Trust, whose drummer(Nicko McBrain) went on to play for a little band called Iron Maiden.
Anthrax covered their song 'Antisocial' on the 'State of Euphoria' album.

 

[Wheezer]

I'm waiting for more from our European contingent. But yet they're so focused on US metal that I'm not so sure I should. Just kidding! Wellll, mostly, anyway.

What I've heard of Patrick Rondat I've liked but other than him I cannot recall a single French band or musician that I've listened to. And I haven't even listened to that much of Rondat's stuff.

 

[SavaRon]

Adagio is from France.

 

[poundingmetal74]

A Classic / Power Metal band called Nightmare came outta France. Killer band. There have been a number of French Canadian metal bands. Here are a few other metal bands from France:

Adagio (Prog Metal)
Heavenly (Power Metal)
No Return (thrash)
Oxenkiller (Classic Metal)

 

[Wyvern]

Time to kill!

Fang introduced me to lots of GREAT rock bands (or metal if you prefer) from France, most sing in their native language which I appreciate a lot and some in English, some had survive the test of time and many has disbanded. I can recommend most definitively:

Classic bands

Sortilege (RIP)
H-Bomb (RIP)
High Power (RIP)
Killers (active)
Attentat Rock (RIP)
Blasphème (RIP)
ADX (active)

Newer bands:

Malediction
Manigance (I wish they play PPVIII)

and some I don't own but have checked:

Vulcain
Satan Jokers
Trust
Titan

and let's not forget Magma the classic prog rock band


BTW Metal-Archives have 2058 bands listed for France

 

[kittybeast]

holy bat balls!! LOL I have an Adagio cd and I think Wyvern gave me a Mangiance. damn how the old mind forgets things

 

[desert_demon]

Curiously enough I myself was wandering this same question. Are there any great rock/metal bands from France? Other than Trust whose fame seems to stem from the fact that Nicko McBrain was a former member and that Anthrax covered their "Anti-social" song, few others come to mind.
The French in general are really not know as metalheads (or even rockers) as far as I know, and please correct me if I'm wrong. Other European countries like Germany, Finland, Spain and of course Sweden and Norway boast many bands in the hard rock/metal genre. It would really be interesting if there were more posts on this thread to bring to light other French bands.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

Anthrax also covered the Trust tune "Le Sects".
I'm a big fan of this band, they are/were kind of like a French AC/DC, which, whenever I bring that up, it seems that they get offended, but I mean that in the best possible way.

J-Dubya

 

[poundingmetal74]

The French in general are really not know as metalheads (or even rockers) as far as I know, and please correct me if I'm wrong.

You are wrong. The French love metal (and numerous live CDs / DVDs have been filmed in France). Their scene is not well known like Germany, Finland, Sweden or Japan but it is strong. Also, the French Canadians (Montreal) have the best metal scene in North America and possibly the world right now.

 

[Fangface]

There are plenty of metal bands over here but France is not a "metal" country like Germany or Sweden, it's just not part of the culture. Moreover our talented bands usually remain unknown to foreign ears.
Most of the French metal scene lies within the extreme metal genre, but we've got way too much of the -core thingy to my taste though... yes I'm a purist when it comes to certain things, don't put the core into my metal!

Ok, I don't know where to start, beware this post will be a bit messy.

I won't talk about disbanded bands, Wyv named the best of them. And SORTILEGE is still my favorite French band ever!


TRUST is by far the most known French hard rock band in the world, they're like AC/DC with punk and heavy metal thrown in, well known for their very political and sarcastic lyrics as well. Trust are playing a few reunion gigs this month but I think I'll pass since the band is a shadow of what it used to be...
http://www.trust.tm.fr/

PATRICK RONDAT is a famous "guitar hero" indeed, he's Jean-Michel Jarre guitar player and has many connections outside the rock 'n roll world. PATRICK RONDAT-The Official Website and information source of Patrick Rondat


As for Heavy Metal/traditional Metal, a few recommendations :
KILLERS : The oldest French band still active! (Trust aren't really active anymore...) Raw heavy/speed/thrash metal and French sung lyrics full of sarcasm, irony, puns and emotion. SITE OFFICIEL KILLERS
ADX : Almost as old as Killers. I did a thread about their reunion gig last month, they play catchy speed metal with a big focus on the riffs, and believe me these guys do know what a sharp riff is. ADX ONLINE
MALEDICTION : A young band singing about the same themes as ADX, i.e history and literature. The most traditional band of the bunch, think about Maiden, Priest, NWOBHM, Megadeth 90's era and Sortilège melted together. Excellent! Malédiction - Official website !
NIGHTMARE : They were a traditional NWOBMH-like band in the 80's, now they play a much more modern and darker brand of heavy metal. Nightmare
PHENIX : Maiden meets Manowar meets early Fates Warning, with a talented singer to boot. Good and promising band. ||| P H E N I X ||| | | | | | | | | | | | |
REVENGE : a more rock 'n roll and Kiss-like version of Accept, very entertaining live act and very cool guys. ______________WWW.REVENGE.COM.FR________ - Home

Power/Prog :
MANIGANCE : would be a perfect fit for PP indeed. Great musicianship and singing, one of my favorite French bands. Untitled Document
REST IN PEACE : not as proggy as Dream Theater, not as heavy as Maiden and not as melodic as Rainbow, but you can hear all these influences in Rest in Peace. Rest in Peace

Prog :
ADAGIO : Seem to be well known in the prog scene... I dig some of their work ("Underworld" is impressive) but their live show is terrible IMO. Adagio Official Website
SPHERIC UNIVERSE EXPERIENCE : I'm not fond of them, but Hawk is (if I'm not mistaken), so there you go : Spheric Universe Experience

Flower/Euro metal :
DYSLESIA : my favorite in that genre, at least for their second album. Site officiel du groupe Dyslesia
FALKIRK : somewhere between Blind Guardian, Savatage and Helloween, pretty cool. FalkirK french metal band
SEYMINHOL : kind of epic and symphonic metal with viking overtones. Seyminhol - Le Site Officiel
HEAVENLY : to me they're a useless GammaRay/Helloween rip off, but many people like them so those into euro power metal can check Heavenly. HEAVENLY - Official Website
FAIRYLAND : Rhapsody clone. It's a well done copy so if you can get past that, why not... I know I can't I hate their bandname too, can you get more laughable than that? Fairyland - 2006 Official Website

Thrash & Death metal :
LOUDBLAST : the "cult" death metal band, some of you probably know them. www.myspace.com/loudblast
AGRESSOR : another old death metal outfit. www.agressor.fr
GOJIRA : Hyped band at the moment, a pretty original death metal act but not really my cup of tea to be honest. II GOJIRA II
KRAGENS : a mix of modern thrash metal and old school influences. I don't know how to describe them better than that, as they draw influences from Judas Priest, Arch Enemy, Queensrÿche, Soilwork and many more. Their live show is a must see! W W W . K R A G E N S . C O M -
NO RETURN : they used to be quite known over here some years ago, now they've gone downhill it seems. Modern death metal version of Slayer. NO RETURN Official Website
YYRKOON : started as an atmospheric black/thrash metal band, then switched to a fantastic and original heavy/thrash register, now they're playing technical death metal. welcome YYRKOON.NET
SYMBYOSIS : very good band melting technical death metal and atmospheric elements into one original entity. Recommended! The official website of Symbyosis
LUEN-TA : you like Death, Atheist, Nocturnus and that kind of stuff? Listen to early Luen-Ta. Now they play electro/modern death metal. cPanel®

Others :
S.U.P. : I've never heard another band playing dark/death metal like them. I'm not a fan, but I've got to admit noone else sound like SUP. Spherical Unit provided
MISANTHROPE : Molière gone mad and playing theatrical death metal Still, I think you have to understand French language and know French culture and literature to get into their material and understand the concept of Misanthrope. Unique band anyway, grandiose and grotesque at the same time. Misanthrope
THE OLD DEAD TREE : maybe the best heavy/goth/death metal from the country. The Old Dead Tree Official Website
ELLIPSIS : very original, theatrical, dark, proggy, frenzy... they call themselves psycho metal! So many different influences (Faith No More, Pantera, Queensrÿche...) that you can't even try to begin guessing all of them. ELLIPSIS Imperial Tzadik
SCARVE : industrial brutal modern metal, featuring Soilwork drummer. :: -- SCARVE -- ::
PHAZM : black 'n roll, side project of Scarve members. PHAZM - Cavehouse Of The Loving Web
CARNIVAL IN COAL : funniest and crazyest band ever! Ever heard disco and poppy brutal grind? Listen to their cover of "Maniac" (yes, the Flashdance song) and you'll understand what I mean... :::... Official Carnival in Coal Web Site ...:::

I don't count the trillions of female-fronted goth bands, nothing special except maybe PENUMBRA. http://www.penumbra-band.com/


That's it for today, maybe you'll find something right your alley in this list. Feel free to ask for more details.

 

[Trans-Siberian Outcast]

Well, leave it to Fang to go overboard! I once asked for recommendations on Rage and he responded to me with a five-page letter then too.

Shows how much class our French friend has, taking time to help out others. Long posts like that aren't built in a couple minutes!

 

[desert_demon]

Absolutely EXCELLENT post, Fangface! Very informative. Indeed, most of the bands you mention I've not heard of or know very little about. One question: Do any of these bands (other than Trust) sing in French? Or is English the preferred language as it is in Germany and Sweden? I ask this because I'm Mexican, and most of the Mexican, South American and Spanish bands that I know sing in their native Spanish.
I'm actually taking french classes right now so it would be cool to have a metal cd by a French band in French.

 

[Wyvern]

I'm actually taking french classes right now so it would be cool to have a metal cd by a French band in French.

Indeed most of them sing in French with ocasionally songs or albums in English. Some have tried to get a broader audience, but I guess they lost fandom in France.

Remember anyway that what counts is the music, not the language

NP: Mekong Delta - 'Black Betty'

 

[kittybeast]

well Fang put it all out there, Thank you so much! That post surely took a while to put together and I sincerely appreciate it. Now off to other boards to check out some French metal....though it's 7 am and now I just want French Toast

 

[carnut]

Classic bands

Sortilege (RIP)
H-Bomb (RIP)
High Power (RIP)
Killers (active)
Attentat Rock (RIP)
Blasphème (RIP)
ADX (active)

That's about the list of best French oldschool bands I guess, I want to add Warning to that though, Warning II is a killer album. Other not so known but good bands are Ocean and Karoline. All those bands do sing French though, so could be harder to get into for English speaking people...

 

[Hawk]

I would like to add this fantastic band:

www.myspace.com/sphericuniverseexperience

 

[Fangface]

Well, leave it to Fang to go overboard! I once asked for recommendations on Rage and he responded to me with a five-page letter then too.

Shows how much class our French friend has, taking time to help out others. Long posts like that aren't built in a couple minutes!

Thank you TSO, I guess I kind of go to both extremes when it comes to posting : either I write 1 sentence or 5 pages but nothing in between

Absolutely EXCELLENT post, Fangface! Very informative. Indeed, most of the bands you mention I've not heard of or know very little about. One question: Do any of these bands (other than Trust) sing in French? Or is English the preferred language as it is in Germany and Sweden? I ask this because I'm Mexican, and most of the Mexican, South American and Spanish bands that I know sing in their native Spanish.
I'm actually taking french classes right now so it would be cool to have a metal cd by a French band in French.

Well most of French metal bands sing in English (sometimes with a terrible froggie accent ), just like in every other european country.
It especially applies to extreme metal, I'd say 95% of those bands sing in English over here, even though some black metal bands might sing in French but you can't understand shit anyway, so it does not make a difference.

An interesting fact is that singing in our native language used to be very common back in the eighties but now it has become more an oddity than anything. And I miss that a little bit to be honest. However, there are still a few traditional metal bands singing in French, if you want to test your French comprehension skills

KILLERS (not the easiest lyrics to understand because of the puns and the fast vocal delivery)
ADX (lyrics about history and historical figures, religion, evil, literature, dark fantasy and stories... catchy and addictive!)
MALEDICTION (same kind of lyrics as ADX, but the music is slower and the voice higher)
MANIGANCE (lyrics about society, feelings, emotions, justice... a more modern approach)
MISANTHROPE (beware, death/extreme vocals... mysterious, dark, decadent and sometimes poetic lyrics about evil, sex and history combined)

And if you want to look for old disbanded bands :

WARNING : half hard rock, half heavy metal, one of the best of the 80's French scene as Carnut said.
SATAN JOKERS : a personal favorite, but most metalheads hate them This is easily understandable as they mixed hard rock with poppy melodies and jazz influences... They also had 2 singers and the lyrics were provocative and humorous for the time.
BLASPHEME : you gotta love those over the top vocal melodies! Great band. I let you guess what their lyrics are about...
H-BOMB : kick-ass NWOBHM done the French way.
DEMON EYES : the first record is a winner.
HIGH POWER : another good yet forgotten french heavy metal band from the past.
VULCAIN : basically the French Motörhead.
DER KAISER : why such a bandname if they sung in French? I still don't know.
TITAN : a short lived band by former Killers members, speed metal as well.

 

[tsorl]

I have an 1999 album called Reaching the Golden Gates by this French power/prog band Dream Child, which is actually not half bad. If I had to draw some comparisons stylistically I'd say it's somewhere around early Alder-era FW and early Tad Morose with this darkish vibe.

According to Metal-Archives they've disbanded years ago and the guitar player Dominic Leurquin's been involved with Rhapsody and Luca Turilli's solo efforts later on.