1. To start at the beginning: Plèvre is a relatively recent formation, though its members already had experience in other projects. How did the band come about, and what were you looking for when you decided to start this new chapter? What did you want to do with Plèvre that perhaps you hadn't been able to do in your previous bands?
Olivier M. : All four of us were coming from a previous project that naturally came to an end. We had been working on a few songs, some of which were really different from our usual style. I was also working on some songs in my spare time, which ended up on the record. It took a while to figure out our new direction, but it stemmed from our personal lives and the world around us. The concept behind Plèvre is much more grounded, darker, and closer to us.
2. The name “Plèvre” refers directly to a part of the body associated with breathing, and given the universe you’ve built around the group, it seems to carry significant conceptual weight. What does the name actually represent to you, and at what point did that identity—so closely linked to suffocation, sickness, concrete, and decay—begin to take shape?
Ophélie G. : It does carry a lot of meaning. We were actually inspired by asbestos, this deadly contaminant that was heavily used (and for a long time) in France in the 20th century. Asbestos, through inhalation, attacks the pleura, “Plèvre” in french. It encapsulated our whole concept and theme so perfectly that we adopted it as our band name.
3. From the start, you opted for a format more ambitious than just an EP or a collection of songs. When did you begin working on “Cité Mouroir,” and how did the album take shape? Did you have a clear idea of what you wanted to achieve from the beginning, or did the concept emerge during the songwriting process?
Olivier M. : As a new band, we know that recording a lot of singles and releasing them periodically is the most “social-media friendly” way of doing things. In this case, we felt that making something we are proud of is more important than getting clicks. We put a lot of work into making a coherent, immersive record, and wanted people to enjoy it as is.
4. “Cité Mouroir” operates within the realm of post-black metal but shows no interest in limiting itself to the genre's conventions. There are elements of black metal, hardcore, and post-metal, as well as moments where melody and choruses take center stage. How would you define Plèvre’s sound now that the album is finished? Is there a particular label you feel comfortable with, or do you prefer to let the music speak for itself?
Ophélie G: Lots of different influences accompanied us while composing Cité mouroir, from Brutus to Der Weg Einer Freiheit and Code. We enjoyed not to limit ourselves to the etiquette of the genre. We still like to define ourselves as a post-black metal band.
5. Songs like “Asbestose” and “Sillons Sanglants” feature riffs and dynamic shifts that stray quite far from what one might expect from a conventional post-black metal record. How do you compose? Does Olivier start with a guitar structure that the rest of the band then develops, or do the songs emerge from a more collective effort?
Olivier M. : The album is a mix of collective and individual efforts. I demo a lot of things on my own from start to finish, because I love doing it, but we also wrote some songs together. Each member can suggest changes or write new parts for their instrument, even if I can be stubborn with my work. Ophélie writes 90% of the lyrics and vocal lines on her own.
6. One of the album’s most striking features is the contrast between the extreme vocals and Ophélie’s clean vocals. What did you aim to convey through that contrast? Was this something present from the earliest versions of the songs, or did the vocals end up altering the actual structure of the tracks?
Ophélie G : I like to work on vocal placement once the instrumental part is quite set, as I like to really immerse myself in the musical atmosphere and kind of follow intuition for vocal placement as a first step. Plèvre’s musical composition really allows for these clean moments to happen between harsher parts. I also just love to mix techniques and allow for creativity to take over. Olivier M. and I were quite in synch as to how the singing should reinforce atmospheres. I also had the chance of having Jessy Christ Vignolle, my vocal coach, in the studio with me and Cédric Guesdon, our producer: this really allowed to refine the vocals and get the most out of them.
7. The lyrics are written in French and revolve around very concrete images: asbestos, concrete, pollution, urban decay, illness, and a general sense of dehumanization. What lies behind the lyrics of “Cité Mouroir”? Are they specific stories, personal experiences, observations of your surroundings, or more of a conceptual construct?
Ophélie G.: we like to explore themes that inspire us by their realness. Cité mouroir carries what makes us angry, what scares us in today's world, while making a sort of parallel with what we imagine of the french late 70s. During that period, lots of buildings (full of asbestos) were built as some sort of utopic great buildings, while they actually decay. Cité mouroir is full of lost illusions. On my side, asbestos and the diseases it causes strikes on a more personal level.
8. “Asbestose” seems to encapsulate much of Plèvre’s universe: a disease caused by inhaling asbestos fibers transformed into a much broader metaphor. What specifically led you to use asbestos as an artistic element, and what does it mean to you beyond its literal dimension?
Ophélie G. : You are absolutely right, it was one of the first song we wrote, and the first single we released with a music video. And as mentioned before, asbestos actually inspired us the name Plèvre. We were quite inspired by the 70s, where lots of constructions were made using asbestos. In France, the ban for asbestos happened quite late even though contaminations were well-known and forbidden in other countries. We like to draw a parallel between what we imagine the end of the 70s were like, and the current world where pollution contaminations still happen, human rights are being challenged…
9. Architecture also plays a crucial role in the album’s visual identity. The cover art features the Espaces d'Abraxas in Noisy-le-Grand, a Brutalist structure that fits the album’s atmosphere perfectly. Why did you choose that specific location? What connection do you see between that architecture and Plèvre’s music?
Olivier M. : Abraxas is a lonely, ominous landmark in the middle of the city.It is a strange place with an interesting story, like many other eccentric buildings of its time. Though designed in the 70s as a social utopia, it now represents the failures of our government and the neglect of the working class. This is an integral part of the lyrical themes of Cité mouroir.
10. “Cité Mouroir” was released by Frozen Records, a label that has championed various strands of extreme metal and new bands from the French scene in recent years. How did the connection with the label come about, and what did you hope to achieve through your collaboration with Frozen Records? How important was it to find a label that understood the project’s visual and musical concept?
Olivier M. : We knew of Frozen Records and listened to some of their bands. They were also selling records at many festivals I went to. We hoped that they would vibe with us, and they did. With us being fans of physical media, it’s really cool to have a label that believes in the project enough to release it on vinyl and cassette tape straight away, in addition to CDs. They were the first label we thought of and we are really happy to have signed with them.
11. The album was produced by DNI Prod, and names like Houle and Pénitence Onirique are part of your circle. What was the recording and production process like? Did you deliberately aim to preserve a certain rawness and physical quality in the sound, or did you have to fight during production to avoid losing that visceral aspect of the songs?
Olivier M. : We recorded one or two instruments at a time (drums and bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar and vocals) over a few weeks. Our producer Cedric suggested a lot of additional parts on the spot, which we ended up using most times. There is a mixture of well thought-out song structures and spontaneous changes that make the album what it is. We all wanted the songs to hit hard while preserving the humanity behind each note, and I hope that it translates well to the audience.
12. In recent years, there seems to have been a significant renewal of French black metal, with bands capable of incorporating elements of post-metal, hardcore, shoegaze, or even more accessible music without necessarily abandoning the genre's extreme essence. How do you perceive the current French scene? Do you believe there is truly a common identity or sensibility that allows one to speak of a “French sound,” or do you think the scene is currently too diverse to speak of a shared characteristic?
Olivier M. : The stereotypical french black metal band is melodic, often influenced by historical or philosophical themes and incarnated by strong visual concepts on stage. I find some of the band’s ideas really refreshing. This is pretty different from the usual satanist themes (which I am a big fan of nonetheless) and corpsepaints of traditional black metal. I think we have more in common with the Polish scene than we do with Norway or Sweden.
13. France has always had a very distinctive personality within black metal, from the 1990s scene to the current generation. Which French bands have been important to you, both musically and in terms of their approach to black metal? Is there any group in the contemporary French scene that you think is doing something particularly interesting?
Ophélie G. : The french black metal scene is so full of great music, concepts and atmospheres. We can cite Silhouette, Houle or Aliore and so much more great bands from the BM contemporary scene, with a strong scenography and thematic richness.
14. Beyond musical influences, what is your relationship with the French scene like? Is there a genuine sense of community among the bands, labels, and organizers, or does the scene remain quite fragmented? And, from your vantage point within it, what do you think currently sets French black metal apart from other European scenes?
Olivier M. : We’re new to the french scene, but we’ve been on friendly terms with some of the bands for a while. It’s a pretty small community where a lot of seemingly unrelated bands know each other. Labels like Frozen Records have an important role in the scene, as curators and promoters of new projects. Metal in France is more underground than in Germany or Norway, which I think reinforces the scene’s creativity.
15. To wrap things up, *Cité Mouroir* is your first full-length album, and as such, it serves as a sort of statement of intent. Now that you’ve heard the finished record and performed the material live, what have you discovered about Plèvre that you didn’t know when you first started working on it? Where would you like to take the band from here?
Olivier M. : I was surprised to see the less categorizable songs on the album do as well as they did live. It’s great to have positive feedback when trying new things. I’m trying to be more confident in my ideas for the next record, even if they don’t fit a particular established genre.
16. What were your musical beginnings like—the first concerts you attended, the first albums you bought? What event in your lives drove you to want to become musicians?
Ophélie G. : Saw a local rock band play live when I was quite young. Seing the musicians on stage I realized that I was not simply enjoying the music, but wanted to be on that stage. And I've loved singing for as long as I can remember.
Paul B-C: Nu Metal kid here... First album: Take a Look in the Mirror by Korn. First real concert: System of a Down in 2011. I wanted to be edgy but my mom didn't want me to play the drums so I took up the guitar and strangely never stopped.
Olivier B. : I was 12, a friend of my brother brought a Cradle of Filth album and I had never heard anything like that before. Then I picked up the bass in high school to play with friends because it seemed fun. And indeed it is!
Olivier M : I was brought up on Pink Floyd and The Doors, but I got into metal on my own. I distinctly remember buying Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son at a record store when I was 14. My first memorable live show was probably Cannibal Corpse at age 15. I experienced a wide array of bands the spectrum of heavy music early on.
17. Which album, for you, embodies the essence of black metal? What are the most recent albums you’ve bought?
It is so hard to define an entire genre, we believe each one of us would say something different.
18. Thank you very much for taking the time to answer these questions for Black Metal Spirit; if you’d like to add anything for Plèvre’s fans, this is the place to do it. I hope the questions were to your liking.
Thank you BMS! Thanks so much to everyone listening and sharing our music, it means the world. We cannot wait to share Cité mouroir live on stage with you!
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