Purity Through Fire is proud to present K.F.R, a one-man band created in 2013 by the artist Maxime Taccardi, best known for his paintings done with his own blood and also the myriad of cover artworks he did in the metal genre. K.F.R is, as he himself describes it, a translation of his darkest illustrations into sonic form. Deeply influenced by the idea of Gesamktkunstwerk theorized by Wagner and later carried on by artists and musicians like Schoenberg, Kandinsky, Scriabine, etc., the total art of Maxime Taccardi first started its path with a mixture of malignant dark ambience and razor-shaped black metal in the tradition of the French Black Legions. It is no coincidence why Meyhnach from Mütiilation participated in K.F.R‘s albums Anti and Ad Manifestationem Diaboli and Vordb from Belketre participated on the Ø album.
Anti-religious in its essence, K.F.R takes its name from the Arabic word “Kafir,” which means disbeliever and which is inscribed on Dajjal’s forehead, the antichrist in Islam. After a trilogy of albums (Anti, Nekro, and Ø), Taccardi thought the project would remain in the dark, but he realized after a hiatus of two years that he had more to say under this moniker. Ad Manifestationem Diaboliand Par le Sang were both released last year by Purity Through Fire and marked a dirtier step into the realm of nauseous and cacophonic black metal. Unrepentantly noisy and unpleasant, they were literally an open wound, a portal to a new era of darkness.
Now, Purity Through Fire is gratified to reveal two highly anticipated albums of K.F.R for this bastard year of 2019: L’Enfer à sa Source and Démonologue, which will both be released on ultra-limited vinyl LP format on May 31st internationally.
L’Enfer à sa Source is a transcendental journey into the realm of Taccardi’s bizarre psyche, a tortured black metal album filled with a never-ending claustrophobia. This sentiment is reinforced by the use of human bones for the drums, giving the music a resonance of death all along. Semantically, it is a concept about Hell as a physical and metaphysical entity, a mental projection of Taccardi’s mind and what others would perceive of it – the idea of Hell being the incarnation of nothingness and a return to what precedes existence. It echoes the work of Schopenhauer, Bataille, and Sartre: death is a return to that state, not an end in itself. Maybe it is a new beginning, a perpetual and cyclic one, an infernal spiral: “HELL,” it’s you. “Maybe you who condemn me are in greater fear than I who am condemned.” – Giordano Bruno
Démonologue is a word invented to describe someone who is a specialist in demonology. It is also, according to Taccardi, a pun between Demon and monologue – so a conversation with yourself, but more specifically with the demons who are inside of you. The album’s tracks describe a selection of demons who are closely linked to the spirit of K.F.R: Asmodée, Azazel, Abaddon, Baal, Buer, Beelzebub, and Lucifer. It is partially based on the infernal dictionary written by Jacques Collin de Plancy. Musically, it is probably the darkest opus created by Taccardi; synths are mostly absent and replaced for a bigger part by choirs performed by the musician. The seven hymns present on this album have to be considered as invocations of the said spirits. Démonologue is a unique crossbreed of vicious black metal and extremely dark atmosphere that will not appeal to amateurs of mainstream black metal. The purpose here is to disgust and make you feel uncomfortable: what black metal should have always been.
In the meantime, see the shocking, grisly new videos for “L’Enfer à sa Source” HERE and “La Chute” HERE. Respective covers and tracklistings for L’Enfer à sa Source and Démonologue are as follows:
Tracklisting
for K.F.R’s L’Enfer à sa Source
1. L’Enfer, c’est Toi
2. Le Sinueux Chemin
3. Simulacre de Chair
4. Ne Cherche Pas à Devenir, Rien n’a jamais commencé
5. Anathème de l’Envie
6. L’Enfer à Sa Source
Tracklisting
for K.F.R’s Démonologue
1. Invocation
2. Asmodée
3. Azazel
4. Prélude à l’exterminateur
5. Abaddon
6. Lucifer
7. La chute
MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/KfrKafir
www.kfr-dajjal.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/MaximeTaccardiArtworks
www.deviantart.com/priestofterror
