Chants of Maldoror

The band Chants Of Maldoror was formed in 1994 by ADOLPHE (vocals), DAVID M. (bass), ECHO (keyboard, synth, piano) and LOREN (guitars and programming). Originally thought to be a medieval/ritualistic music project, COM will soon assume “bloodier” and “spookier” characteristics, with a sound decidedly veering towards the darkest deathrock. The band’s name comes from the prose poem “Les Chants De Maldoror” by Isidore Ducasse, a masterpiece of the unreal and a decadent manifesto of surrealistic imagery. Their first official release was the demotape “Ritual Death” (self-produced, 1997), which gained very good reviews on both European and Overseas magazines and fanzines, and brought the gloomy young band to perform live all over the world. The first full-length cd, “Thy Hurting Heaven” (Radio Luxor/SPV), was released in June 2000, a further evolution in sound and songwriting that led the group to earn the status of “European goth-rock cult band”; the cd was promoted with many shows across Europe, concerts/dark theatrical performances held in small clubs as well as on important stages, such as the 11th Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig and the legendary “Paradiso” in Amsterdam. The escalation continued, in September 2002, COM played with Sex Gang Children and in November of that year with Mephisto Walz. A more varied and daring album “Every Mask Tells The Truth” (Strobelight Records) saw the (moon) light in 2005, and it was soon followed by a long line of promotional shows which widened the band’s audience and took COM to play some of their more satisfactory concerts: a second appearance at Leipzig’s 15th Wave Gotik Treffen, a New Year’s Eve show at the “Dynamo” in Zurich, and the 2006 show as opening act for the band Bauhaus in Utrecht. Chants Of Maldoror played their last show ever in Rome in 2008; after that, they started rehearsing and recording new songs for a third album, but the band broke up in 2010 before its completion, leaving it unfinished and unreleased.