I started writing you an ask @saecookie but it sucks too much that I can't put links in them so I'm writing it here so you can listen to the songs easily.
To give a little context (not exactly needed) : I was listening to some Calexico songs earlier. I reaaally recommend giving them a listen, they incorporate a lot of spanish influences and sing in spanish sometimes and they have really cool songs (I can give a few titles if needed but honestly all their albums are great and can be listened to the whole way through with great enjoyment). In my youtube recommended on the side I see a song in spanish, cool same vibe I guess, so I click on it and it was NOT WORLD MUSIC but some good ol' spanish metal. Then I switch to another suggestion (Aeon Enigma - Order of the Crystal Rose) but the last song got me thinking. Most power metal songs are in english, even when the bands are from all over in Europe. However, some songs have lyrics in the mother tongue of the band or sometimes full songs (I am reminded of bands like Powerwolf (german) or Moonspell (portuguese, not power metal though)), and recently I went to the metal exhibition in Paris (Diabolus in Musica) which was awesome but especially had a room dedicated to french metal. It was awesome and seeing all the pictures and posters for concerts was amazing. So I wondered if there was any french power metal bands (there MUST be, even not super popular ones) and the first thing I found was a reddit page with people's suggestion (the best way to find new stuff, through word of mouth). The op of the post was asking for french power metal because they had listened to BĂȘte du GĂ©vaudan by Powerwolf (again, a german band but they sing the whole song in french and their pronounciation is GREAT!!)(yes the original is in english but that's still so freaking cool).
So before we get into french bands, let's first listen to this german one singing in french :
The thing is with this genre they usually sing in english, but there are a few french speaking ones ! (and more ;) )
I really liked L'épée des Dieux by Herzel. This one is not too far from the beginnings of metal, big hard rock vibes. C'est pas trop dépaysant. I love the change in rhythms between the verses and choruses.
There were a few that were good but didn't make my head explode (which is fair I'm no metric for how good a song is). Le bal des ombres by Manigance was pretty nice and Darktribe has a song called Voici l'Homme that has choruses in french (they usually sing in english) that's cool too.
But then, I found that really got me listening to the whole album in one sitting. They are called boisson divine and they don't sing in french but in gascon !! All their albums are on bandcamp and they provide lyrics in gascon, in french and in english ! I sat down for an hour and listened to La Halha. I truly recommend it. They have really cool sounding songs (I think they have an accordion ? could be a synth), they have a good mix of powerful songs, a nice balance between instrumental and singing moments, and they even have a few ballads :D
I'm going to look at more french power metal bands now ! If I can come knocking at your door with more music recommendations tell me :D
