MALEPESTE, black metal from Lyon, release “Ex Nihilo”, November 7th

MALEPESTE, a black metal band from Lyon founded in 2010, is preparing to release its third album, “Ex Nihilo”, on November 7, 2025 via Les Acteurs de l’Ombre Productions.

After a demo in 2011 and a debut album, Dereliction (2013), the band made its mark with an abrasive style: slow tempos, dissonant arpeggios, incantatory vocals, and a raw stage aesthetic.

Their second album, Deliquescent Exaltation (2015), marked the arrival of Herjann, a second guitarist on rhythm. This evolution freed up the composition process, while also initiating a strong thematic shift: the rags were replaced by robes covered in Theban inscriptions; shows, thick with incense, became suffocating and transformed into overt rituals. The band’s occult dimension took shape—a ritualistic black metal fueled by inner resonance. The entity continued its path with a series of concerts and a tour alongside Malhkebre.

In 2018, MALEPESTE released a split with Dysylumn, “Ce qui fut, Ce qui est, Ce qui sera” (“What Was, What Is, What Will Be”), introducing clean vocal choirs. The sound became more controlled, more organic—without losing the distinctiveness that defines the band.

After a break devoted to the side project Grande Loge, MALEPESTE returns with “Ex Nihilo”, an album matured over several years but delayed by the pandemic. It marks a continuation: always true to its essence, the band continues its quest on the border between the sacred and the ruined.

This new opus explores the theme of Creation in a broad sense—and the vertigo that comes with it. That inner tension that drives one to bring something out of the void, even at the risk of losing oneself in it. Each track embodies a stage in the cycle: impulse, pride, awe, doubt, relapse.

“Ex Nihilo” is a smoldering fire, a desperate forward escape… the cost of creating when you have nothing left to give—except yourself.

An album driven by the breath of necessity: to create, to answer the call, even if nothing remains but ashes.

Preorders : https://lesacteursdelombre.net/product-category/preorders