Standard Jewel Case in Slipcase/O-Card / Cristal Fourreau Rouge Limité.
Tracks 2, 4, 6, 9, 10 are unreleased 2000 french versions
Tracks 16-18 are 2021 re-recordings (marked as bonus tracks).
So the story goes on, twenty years later...
No longer green, now red. Still it's
Misanthrope Immortel... and it's not, at the same time. Let's first quickly deal with the remaster case. It's as useless as these always are. The original album was recorded in 2000, benefitted from quality equipment, and sounded perfectly fine – the sound of its time. Listening to both versions successively the new master appears undeniably clearer... so what? That's minor modifications which will be more or less noticed depending on the listening conditions anyway. At least they didn't massacre it, and, considering the current trends in remastering, that's already a lot.
Now, to the heart of the matter. You just read it above – the original
Misanthrope Immortel consisted in thirteen tracks, four of them sung in English and all the rest in French. But, again, as the band was starting to garner international recognition, they had the (in retrospect, strange) idea of releasing another version, dubbed
Immortal Misanthrope, where all the songs were sung in English. This
international version however lacked the spoken outro as well as no less than three songs (deemed untranslatable?), which were somehow compensated by the exclusive, but lackluster, track
Exiled Existence. Finally, the 2021 version we're currently dealing with features all thirteen original tracks AND
Exiled Existence (
Existence sans sursis) AND a previously unreleased spoken intro... everything being now sung in French. Think of it as the ultimate
Misanthrope Immortel edition.
So what? These French vocal lines aren't new. They were recorded at the same time as their English equivalent, and for whatever reason the guys decided to keep a few tracks sung in English; we cannot blame them, as it conferred the original an additional, precisely, international, flavour. Releasing these tracks 20 years ago might have made sense, still; now, they arrive long after the battle has been fought. Especially as alternate French versions have been floating around over the years (you'll find these on the 'digital bonus' offered with the album).
Existence sans sursis? It's a galloping alright, but kind of filler track, much lighter on orchestral keyboards than its siblings, thus lacking their special brand of rampant madness. The previously unreleased intro isn't without interest, as it echoes the original outro to almost confer a concept-album architecture to the whole... well, it lasts less than 20 seconds anyway.
These small differences set aside, the songs are basically the same than on the original
Misanthrope Immortel. No, this re-release was definitely not
needed.
But wait, there is more. No doubt SAS de l'Argilière
et al. pondered a bit about the sentence above, and included three extra tracks in an attempt to make the package more attractive. Three songs totally re-recorded with the current line-up, in modern Misanthrope fashion: rawer, more powerful, fronted by the deeper growls of a disgruntled 50-years old misanthrope and backed by the uncompromising pounding of Gaël Féret's war machine.
Totally re-recorded, said I? Nope – The orchestral parts are recycled from the originals. Those very orchestral tracks which have become the most iconic trait of these songs – the magnificent synths intro of
Les Empereurs du Néant, the triumphal fast strings break in
Les lamentations du Diable, to point out only the most significant. Besides, de l'Argilière's vocal performance borders on histrionics when he tries too hard to make these well-known tunes sound
different. I'd keep
L'envol, though – that one was originally a B-side found on the
Recueil d'écueils compilation, which experiences here a welcomed second youth, even if the middle part remains hopelessly plodding.
Now you think about it, why would any true immortal ask for a birthday celebration?
Sample:
youtube.com/watch?v=BpdPHtCvQ8A&list=RDBpdPHtCvQ8A&start_radio=1Sample:
youtube.com/watch?v=4enpiDl_t2k&list=RD4enpiDl_t2k&start_radio=1
