TENTATION: French Heavy Metal Band Releasing Debut Album in September

Photo Credit: Laurène Coranti-Herten

French heavy metallers Tentation will release their full-length debut album September 24 on Gates of Hell Records. Le Berceau Des Dieux is a throwback to the glory days of 1980s metal, complete with a deadly Maiden-on-Mercyful Fate twist, and sung entirely in French. The album will be available on CD, vinyl, and digital formats.

The first single, “Le Couvent”

Tentation was formed in 2012 in Torreilles, a small village in the south of France. Visitors are immediately reminded of Torreilles’s history when passing through its streets — many of the buildings in its center have maintained a medieval appearance.

It has become the ideal setting for the band to create their own brand of classic heavy metal that embraces the lineage of early Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate, Venom, as well as bands from their home country, namely, ADX and Sortilege.

But while Tentation carefully pays homage to the bands that so inspired them, their brand of vintage metal comes with the unique twist of having vocals sung entirely in French. These elements combine to make the band’s long-in-the-making Le Berceau Des Dieux debut one of the year’s most unique vintage metal offerings.

Instruments for Le Berceau Des Dieux were tracked this past February and March at Record It Studios in Perpignan, France, with additional refinements taking place at the band’s own studio, L’art ou Cochon. The album was mixed and mastered at Moontower Studio in Barcelona, Spain by Javi Félez Rodriguez. Translated as “The Cradle of the Gods,” Le Berceau Des Dieux delves deep into Tentation’s interest in mythology and ancestral legends. Throughout the album’s running order, Tentation balances Maiden-like gallops with high-wire guitar solos, pairing them with the fluid delivery of Rôhée. It is a combination like any other in the classic metal scene at the moment — sent to metalheads directly from the heart of the Occitanie region of France!