English transcript : Bagoth (Martyrs Duplessis)
Please note : This is an English translation of an automated (yet perfected) AI transcript. It is provided for informational purposes only. While we did our best to capture the vibe, automated tools can sometimes twist spoken words—especially with our local Quebec slang! For official or accurate reference, please consult the original audio episode.
HUGO LACHANCE: It’s September 24, 2026, coming to you from Trois-Rivières, and today we’re at the foot of the statue of Maurice Duplessis, architect of The Great Darkness in Quebec. And why? Because I’m hosting the French-Canadian black metal band Bagoth on L’Album Podcast!
I also want to thank Hopera, the sponsor of this episode. So Hopera is a restaurant on Saint-Dominique Street in Jonquière, but it’s also Hopera La Shop, which is actually a building, a factory right in the middle of the industrial park where they brew their beer. There’s a nice little counter where you can order. They host food events. And I love Vlad and his team because they also host tons of cultural events; they’re close to the people in the cultural scene. So we shout out to Vlad and his team.
If you want to support the podcast, you can make a one-time or monthly donation by going to www.lalbumpodcast.ca if you’re listening to the audio version, otherwise it’s in the episode description. Thanks to those who do, it’s greatly appreciated.
I’m with Guillaume and Andy from Bagoth. That’s definitely them, hello! Is this really a French-Canadian black metal band? Well, there it is, it’s not quite Mononc' Serge & Anonymus.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: We’re very Québécois. But that’s it, if we want to transport ourselves back to that era, we could say French-Canadian, of the French-Canadian race.
HUGO LACHANCE: That’s why I do my intro like this, because it’s so Duplessis.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: I get it, I totally get it.
HUGO LACHANCE: And yeah, that’s it. You guys are part of Orloge Simard. We saw each other on August 15, 2024, at the La Baie funeral cooperative.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Oh yeah? I don't remember that.
HUGO LACHANCE: We did about a solid three hours of a heated podcast, it was like our own funeral. We’re back. For those interested, if you want to refresh your memory, it’s available.
We’re here to talk about your project Bagoth and your album Martyrs Duplessis. But before talking about it, as usual, I’m introducing you, asking you the same six questions. Actually, I’ve already asked you these questions. Andy, when I asked you where you were from as a kid, you told me Bagotville, is that still the case?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Yes, that’s still the case. And the sharpest ones among the listeners will figure out there’s a connection with Bagoth, Bagotville, so we’ll surely talk about that later.
HUGO LACHANCE: That’s sick! Yeah, that’s good. Your childhood album, you said it was your uncle Dag who made you listen to it, yeah...
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Well, I said Rasta Bigoud, that’s it, exactly. I was into reggae, but hey, we like quite a few styles. We’re having a black metal day with Maurice right behind us here. That’s it, there are all kinds of styles. Cool.
HUGO LACHANCE: For your teenage album with Olivier, you listened to a lot of Jean Leloup, Gainsbourg, and Histoire de Melody Nelson.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Yes, yes. We downloaded that on LimeWire the first time.
HUGO LACHANCE: I'm asking you that again because that's what we laughed about during the interview. Your first instrument, what was it?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: My first instrument was the Tap-touche keyboard. Now that’s vintage.
HUGO LACHANCE: Ah yeah, that’s really funny. Guillaume, you were born in La Baie. Pretty much that, yeah. I kind of lumped it all together.
Your childhood album, you said The Wall, Jeff Beck, Richard Desjardins.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: Yeah, but thinking back, we talked about the Columbia House bill. But I forgot to tell you, I used to collect AC/DC CDs, that was more it deep down. I had more of those than my mom's CDs. My first CDs, they were more AC/DC, I was fascinated by Angus Young when I was young.
HUGO LACHANCE: By the way, your Columbia House bill is going to catch up with you.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: That can wait, it’s tradition.
HUGO LACHANCE: And your first instrument is the accordion.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: Yeah, that’s what I said, yeah. The accordion, and then bass shortly after, it didn't take long either. I started playing bass.
HUGO LACHANCE: Obviously, you guys are part of Orloge Simard, we know your discography. I just want to add Le Somptueux théâtre psychiatrique, which came out not long ago. How is it going with this album?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It’s going really well. We got great reviews for our show. At the same time, we released the album the next day. We got really great reviews, even cult quotes regarding the show and the live album. What comes up often is that the sound is really good, and some people who aren't big live album fans reconnected with that format. That’s cool. Jean-Michel Frigon’s sound, he’s our sound engineer, he’s the one who worked hard on the album’s sound. He really did an exceptional job, which was recognized across the reviews.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: Yeah, really, the goal was definitely to give people a taste of being at a show, being there with your crowd and all that. I think Jean-Michel really nailed his goal.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It’s selling well too. Olivier is swamped. He’s swamped.
HUGO LACHANCE: You guys also—because I have no choice to talk about it—you’re the organizers of the Le Culte de Port-Alfred festival. It was its fourth edition this year. The goal of that is to promote the preservation of the Saint-Édouard church, notably through a renovation and library project as well.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Yes, which was officially approved by the city. It had been abandoned by the previous municipal administration, and now it's back with the new mayor, the new team, the new city board of directors, the municipal council. We celebrated our victory at this edition.
HUGO LACHANCE: You guys are persistent people.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: We rang the bells after 20 years, it was very symbolic. It was moving. After that, Fred Fortin played. Along with that, we had light projections of artworks by Louis-Robert Bouchard, so it was really a great edition, it was exceptional.
HUGO LACHANCE: Congrats guys, super proud of you! Now, moving on to Bagoth justement. Where does the name come from?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: That’s it, I kind of spilled the beans earlier, but yeah, it comes from Bagotville. So we’re originally from Bagotville, which is a borough of La Baie, in the city of Saguenay for those who know it less. And that’s it, I had the idea to just take Bagot and add an "H" for gothic of course. So right away you see the connection with black metal, metal in general. Gothic was a theme heavily used by metal bands, so you immediately understand it’s a metal band just from the name. And we see the regionalist side of things; even though it talks a lot about Trois-Rivières, we still want to own the fact that we’re from Saguenay, we’re always proud of all that and La Baie among other things. We proudly lean into that with the name.
HUGO LACHANCE: That’s sick! It’s truly one of the best names, if not the best name in the world. Wow! That’s a bold statement. That’s it, we’re at the foot of the statue of Maurice Duplessis. We traveled—you guys from Saguenay, and me from Montreal—to meet in Trois-Rivières for the episode. Excellent idea by the way.
I have an article here, January 5, 2026, by Andréanne Larouche and Pascal Girard for Radio-Canada. Andy, I’ll quote you: "The idea of doing an artistic project on Duplessis goes back a long way. For my part, I had kind of discovered one of his speeches at the National Library of Quebec in Montreal when I lived there about 15 years ago. I was fascinated by the way this political figure, a historical figure of Quebec, expressed himself. He mastered the art of oratory, the way of speaking. I was truly captivated by this character." The keyboardist with the impressive mop of hair even once considered a reggae project about Maurice Duplessis.
The current collaboration with his accomplice, bassist GUILLAUME BOUCHARD, finally took shape during the pandemic. So, what is the story of the band and why isn't it reggae? You see the connection earlier with Rasta Bigoud, everything is connected, it’s great, we’re truly at opposite ends. That's cool, but tell us about it.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Truly, I’ve been passionate about the character of Duplessis for about 15 years. I do research, I read, I listen to things about him. And I always wanted to do an artistic project, I didn't know which one, but one day I told myself: he's just too fascinating of a figure, he played too big a part in Quebec's history not to talk about him in a creative and artistic way. People talk about him, there have been books, biographies, there was a TV series starring Jean Lapointe and written by Denis Arcand among others, which means people still know the character. People easily associate the Great Darkness, but there are several things to say, it’s not just that. It’s too big a part of our history to just sum it up as the Great Darkness and not talk about it artistically or put creativity into it. Music-wise, I think it’s never been done to talk about the Great Darkness, about Duplessis and that entire era.
HUGO LACHANCE: Mononc' Serge did it with Révolution conservatrice.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Yes, Révolution conservatrice, that's true, he talks about Duplessis a bit. But a truly musical work centered on the central character that is Duplessis hasn't been done. The Great Darkness has been covered by a few black metal bands, but it wasn't very specific. Us, we really approach his political career in our own way, of course. That's really it, and it's quite chronological on the album. And we don't believe, at least to our knowledge, that anything else has been done the same way we did it, centered on Duplessis and his era, his ministers and characters too, we can talk about that later.
HUGO LACHANCE: Well yes, of course. And why did you choose the direction of metal or black metal? Actually, what labels, first of all, could we stick on Bagoth? I know it's annoying, but we have to do it. If there are musical labels to slap on it, what would they be?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: We can say metal. But for us, it would be Duplessist metal, Quebec political metal. I don't know, just like that, those are things that come to mind, but I like Duplessist metal. I like the term Duplessist, I find it packs a punch. It feels like everything is metal regarding Duplessis. The character was born to be in metal, even if it didn't exist in his era. There's a wicked side too, there's a face. The term Great Darkness... Even the statue is in the shadow, some sun just appeared but earlier when we walked into the park, there's sun everywhere except on his statue, it looks like he was made for metal! There's always the visual of the era too, he's in an era where color photos and television... he's always in black and white, there's a black metal side to it. It's influenced by black metal, we can say that. The influence is there. When we started the project, I was really deep into black metal on the side, I listened to it every day, I read books about it too. At first, it was supposed to be a pure black metal project, and then eventually...
HUGO LACHANCE: We're gonna get bitten, Hopera's IPA is so good, and the wasps too!
ANDY ELLEFSEN: At first, it was supposed to be truly black metal, but along the way, with the compositions, it kind of changed a bit, but it kept the black metal influence and your way of singing, because you sing on the album...
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: Well actually, it's mostly me and Andy, but I do more of the black metal vocals, Andy declaims the lyrics, the more politician-like voice.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Because there's a connection to be made. There's all the aesthetics surrounding Maurice Duplessis, but there's also the speech. You mentioned that earlier, the way he speaks, it's from the era of great speeches, of orators. And in Martyrs Duplessis, often it's spoken word. There are melodies, but there's a lot of spoken word that sounds like a speech too. That's it, it's really declaimed. Basically, my voice, it's really declaimed speeches, it precisely evokes a politician from the 50s. That's the goal of all this. Guillaume, his voice is more like a black metal voice, which can be seen as some sort of evil Duplessist unionist being. There's something there, anyway, you can imagine several things. We're fans, let's say, of Lucien Francoeur, of Marc Simard from Les Démons de l'Abreuvoir, it's more people who talk too, we really like that. And Léo Ferré too on my part, I like Léo Ferré, I like the speeches of politicians of that era like Michel Chartrand, speeches that truly carry weight both in the voice and the message. These are real speeches in front of a large audience normally, with all the sound reinforcement that went with it. There aren't speeches like that anymore. It sounds good too! There's amplification happening, it gives a texture to all of that.
HUGO LACHANCE: Another article here from Metal Universe, 2026, Édouard Dubuisson: "Musically, it tears things up wildly in the purest tradition of black metal, with the distinct feature of having French lyrics. The lyrics are dark and refer to Maurice Duplessis and the period when he was Prime Minister of Quebec, better known as the Great Darkness. But the originality is the fact that it's told like a horror tale that deliberately shines a spotlight on the dark side of the leader's reign. Authority and terror are palpable in the created atmosphere, both in the lyrics and the orchestration, but also thanks to the choir. Speaking of the choir, I find they bring a dark and oppressive atmosphere. What immediately came to my mind are Bolshevik chants, notably those of the Red Army Choir. The guttural vocals are handled by Guillaume, while the narrative vocals are performed by Andy." That sums up well what we just said. And for me, my part in all that, as I was saying earlier, Andy, when I listened to the album, I had a hard time separating myself from Orloge Simard because there are parts that sound like Orloge Simard, and that's totally normal, especially in the choir parts, I find.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Actually, it's normal because Olivier sings in all the group vocals. And I had made demos for all the vocals. And I had asked Oli to come over to my place: let's record. And it's more... because I'm not a good singer, so I asked... and Olivier, he's a singer. So I sent the tracks with my demos, and I said: come do them at my place, and after that we can send it to the group vocals. So Oli did them at my place, and we laid down 4-5 tracks of the same thing. And in the end, it was really good. So when we did the group vocals, I kept those demos and I added them into the group vocals too, which is why you hear his voice right away. And Oli also really helped me with the group vocals, he had ideas too, and Max also who sings in the group vocals, pretty much the whole band sings. And Olivier led a lot during the recordings too. That's it, I was like at the computer, at the console, Oli was the one really with the others to lead. He had made the demos too, he was pretty much aware of what needed to be done, he was like a leader on that level, along with Guillaume of course who was behind the console. I wasn't at the console, he was the one leading.
HUGO LACHANCE: I didn't think he was involved to that extent!
ANDY ELLEFSEN: For the group vocals, he was involved. More than that, he's the one who delivers our vinyls, he delivers the vinyls, the t-shirts, he's our delivery guy! It's on Third Street in Port-Alfred, that's where his deliveries happen.
HUGO LACHANCE: I had never noticed that, but you know, the Bolshevik chants, it's still interesting that they noticed that because Duplessis himself was against Bolshevik communism. That's it, anything Bolshevik... I don't talk much about that in my life, but I find the parallel interesting. It's a bit paradoxical for the chants to be like that.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: What's cool too is that there are several things inserted into the speeches as well, there's irony in the songs.
HUGO LACHANCE: That's it, we'll talk about it because that's really what's interesting, since it's not an album made for cheap Duplessis-bashing, it's to your credit too. This is part of your press release: "For the production of this album, big names from the metal scene joined Bagoth. Indeed, Michel Bélanger, drummer for the bands Gorguts and Cynic—no small feat!—played drums on the album, and Christopher Rannou from Beyond Fiction played guitar in addition to mixing and mastering the record. It is undoubtedly a unique album in Quebec metal, a new genre. Hell is red and blue, heaven, nothing is less certain." That's an excerpt from your press release. Tell me about that, about the help you got, because it starts with just the two of you, but you had to, if you wanted organic stuff, invite real people to play on it.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: We're the masterminds of the project, who thought of the project, who set all this up, but it's really not just the two of us. The album—thank goodness we had everyone who participated, but among others the ones you just named. Guillaume, he stopped talking, he's the one who made contact...
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: That's it, because at first, the goal changed often along the way, but at first I wanted to do everything, all the instruments. Me, I don't play drums, I figured I'd use a drum machine. It wasn't anything really serious at the beginning, but as time went on, I was composing, I thought it was good enough to do something better than that. I started playing guitar, but then for the drummer, I told myself I'd find a drummer eventually. It's Olivier Pinard from Cryptopsy who referred me to Michel Bélanger. Connected after that, it worked out really well, he did all the tracks I sent him. He, that's it, he put his tracks on my tunes, and then afterwards... During that time, we were also doing Culture du culte in parallel, we were pretty busy, and the project went on pause. And the one who truly breathed new life into the project is Christopher Rannou. I had started playing guitar, but it wasn't good enough, I'm not a guitar player, I only play acoustic guitar. I am a very good bassist. It's Max Bouchard, our drummer, who referred me to Christopher Rannou, and thank goodness we got him! He's the one who truly breathed new life into the project.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: He told me he liked the tunes so much that when he sent me—I just wanted him to do the rhythm section, but when he sent it back, he sent it with the solos.
HUGO LACHANCE: I had composed everything, the solos... It's like a personal project on your side, you composed all the instruments. But how do you compose? Do you start with the guitar?
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: For sure when I compose on guitar, I grab the guitar. When I grab the bass, the piano, I do my thing, and after that I try to input that into MIDI so I can send it to show what I want with sheet music, and like that...
HUGO LACHANCE: You show something, then you pitch it to Andy?
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: Yeah, all the time. We were in contact every day, he really has good taste. When Andy says it's good, I trust it, I keep going.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Thanks! It allows me to keep going!
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: It was really like that. Us, we talked. It started during the pandemic. Guillaume would arrive with his compositions, he'd send them to me, I always liked it, it's rare that I was like... I don't have any memory of saying "that doesn't work". It took a long time, we were doing this on the side, we were doing other things. We have a life, we have other things. When it takes a long time, you tell yourself: is it good, is it not good. I had done all my bass lines, I had bought a Fender Precision, I had recorded all my bass, then I bought a MusicMan, I junked all my bass tracks, I re-recorded all my bass with the MusicMan! It's full of little things like that that add time, that's why it took 5 years.
HUGO LACHANCE: We're back to a point where it's like a pendulum, it ends up keeping going, but I've done a lot of it. It swings, which way is it going to swing? Andy, because the guys who sent me an article, they told me: yeah Hugo, there's an American who wrote an article about Bagoth, it's pretty intense. I read it completely on the plane, I was like wow! That article took the same amount of time to make as the album! We're closer to a thesis. What he said was interesting.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: We went back to university, it practiced our English anyway! But what's interesting with this guy is that at first he just wanted to write a small review, he got so interested in the album's subject and Quebec's history, he did tons of research. And excuse me, he was at the master's thesis level! Maybe not a PhD thesis, but he was heading there! There's an American who... He knew nothing about Quebec's history or almost nothing, and he really went deep into it. We're still proud to say that we made an album and it interested an American in our history, it's like... We still spread positive things regarding history and knowledge. Anglophones are less inclined to take an interest in our history, we found that really interesting. It took almost four months, he contacted us. For those who can go check it out online too, the questions are almost the answers!
HUGO LACHANCE: Yeah, that's it, it's not really a good interview, but the questions are legitimate.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: We really like his interpretation. It's like a review at the same time, his interview-review.
HUGO LACHANCE: I kept a little bit of it. Obviously, we won't go through all of it because we don't have too much time ahead of us, but it's on blackmetalzine.com, the author is Fractal, September 11, 2026: "I couldn't help but notice that the making of this album avoids the most problematic pitfalls that critics of the genre generally consider toxic, such as explicit political support by artists for oppressive regimes, autocracy, or extreme ideologies. Martyrs Duplessis is in my view an excellent example showing that the union between political science and historical black metal remains a field to be explored, even when the central thesis addresses tyranny or other forms of oppression. I have the feeling that one of the key ingredients of this success lies in the fact that the album feels relatively impartial. Conceptually, this presentation makes me think of lighting technicians and shadow puppeteers playing both roles at the same time. I'll throw out a random arrow: what do you think of this analysis?" That gives a bit of the intensity of the text, it's really interesting what he says. And we talked about it a bit earlier, it's the fact of being somewhat impartial. It's not cheap Duplessis-bashing, it's truly both. You were really telling a good part of Quebec's history, and the metaphor of the puppet and the play of light and shadow is quite interesting.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Actually, that's spot on, I really liked his metaphor. It's that us, we play characters, we interpret history, and we really go with our creative side, it's truly our personality as well that's in there. And you know, sometimes there are Saguenay bits through Duplessis's story, we modify things. And it was really about talking about history but through our own vision, and really the artistic, creative side that was important. It's not educational, we don't want to make something boring, it remains art. That's it, and we interpret, actually we're very free on this album. And it's taking history, and sometimes it looks like it's biased, sometimes it's against him, there's no stance. There's no stance actually. It's like to interpret sometimes, I see it like a horror movie. It's like a director making a horror movie: he's not for murders, but there are going to be murders! We're like that in that sense, it's truly about creating a work of art, it creates a lot of mental images about it
HUGO LACHANCE: Exactly, there's the rest which is not bad: "In case it wasn't obvious to everyone, could you explain how the satirical use of roleplay and embodiment was one of the many literary devices integrated into your narrative approach? For example, I found it very interesting to note all the times the lyrics break character, introducing self-deprecation." That's my question to myself: as Frank Zappa said, does humor belong in music? In fact, there's a lot of humor in this album, and you know, at first glance it doesn't show because it's declaimed, there's a satanic voice, the music is harsh, but in fact, aside from Martyrs Duplessis... not Martyrs Duplessis, it's a kind of god, there's no humor, it really talks about the Duplessis Orphans, which is a tragic and terrible story in Quebec's history. Apart from that, all the other stories, there's always humor. You read the lyrics and you'll always have a little smirk. It's like the Orloge side sometimes too, but at the same time Orloge is us, Orloge is that! Earlier you mentioned that you heard Orloge, that's why I was making a connection with that, but it remains our own personality, humor is part of this daily life. You have to listen to it more than once, it's exactly as you said: you'll pass... it's dense both musically and lyrically, there's a lot of things, you can't just listen to it once and understand.
HUGO LACHANCE: On the last episode, I hosted Smash It Combo, and they did the video game geek culture. And I asked them the question: do you think you've invented a new branch of metal, if you will? They say that in France, yes, I think so. And you guys, in the case of Bagoth, do you think you've created a new branch of metal?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Well, for sure it's original and we haven't seen anything equivalent in Quebec metal. After that, to say internationally, that's because there are too many projects, especially in our era, I wouldn't go there, but in Quebec, to our knowledge, I'd be very surprised if there's a quarter of that! It's quite original.
HUGO LACHANCE: Perfect! But you have to play the game, you have to pay attention to it, more than just one listen, read the lyrics. Anyway, let's move on to the album credits. So, the title is Martyrs Duplessis. Then, the year is 2026.
HUGO LACHANCE: Do you have an independent record label?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Still independent! We do everything ourselves from Quebec.
HUGO LACHANCE: There you go! So, in the credits: ANDY ELLEFSEN on main vocals. GUILLAUME BOUCHARD on main vocals, bass, keyboards, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, drum machine, and percussion. There is Christopher Rannou-Poulin on rhythm guitar and lead guitar. Michel Bélanger on drums. Gabriel Pearson on arrangements and piano. Louis-Clément Tremblay on saxophone—because there's even jazz in there! On group vocals: Olivier Simard, Maxime Bouchard, Maxime Bernier... Not the politician! Did you go get Maxime Bernier the politician?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: We went to record in Beauce! We're making an album about Duplessis, it's very conservative.
HUGO LACHANCE: Was Julie Couillard there too? No?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: No! There was Alex Côté and Patrick Morin.
HUGO LACHANCE: Mixing and mastering by Christopher Rannou-Poulin. Sound recordings by Pierre-Luc Gilbert, GUILLAUME BOUCHARD, Christopher Rannou-Poulin, Michel Bélanger, and Gabriel Pearson. Now, are we forgetting anyone? The cover credits maybe, and the visuals? I'm getting to it because it's really important. What a magnificent cover! It appeals to me. By the way, we're going to make it appear on screen: 1, 2, 3... I think I'm still the only guy who makes album covers appear using technology! So, who made the cover?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It's Bianca Dallaire, a longtime friend from Port-Alfred in La Baie. She's also our girlfriends' cousin, if you want specific details!
HUGO LACHANCE: You notice that in the region, we're always someone's cousin!
ANDY ELLEFSEN: You're from Arvida too, I never said otherwise! She's an illustrator and tattoo artist. It's not her first time collaborating with us, she had done the portrait of Stéphane Ouellet too. The cover depicts Duplessis's funeral in 1959 in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption of Trois-Rivières, which is located right here at the end of Bonaventure Street. It's a painting made from a period photo that Bianca worked on for several weeks. It's a beautiful painting with a raw side, the colors are perfect and it truly represents the album's atmosphere. And inside, there's a great photo. We risked our lives!
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: It's Maxime Bernier who took the photos, our friend the photographer and not the politician!
HUGO LACHANCE: We won't say hello to him, then!
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It was Remembrance Day, the weather was bad and schools were closed because there was an attempted snowstorm. Guillaume and Maxime told me the roads weren't great, but I went out and saw "hare pots" falling. It's thick snow falling quietly and settling delicately on objects. I was like: this is the ideal day! We went up and the road wasn't that bad after all. The snowflakes were huge and settled on the monuments. Maurice Duplessis looked like he was wearing snow football shoulder pads!
HUGO LACHANCE: Guillaume, you're photogenic as hell in a suit! It suits you well. In the acknowledgments, we note a thank you to Anthony Tremblay for lending the book Histoire du Canada français by Lionel Groulx to be used as percussion on a nightstand, thanks to Michaël Guay, Olivier Pinard, and Jimmy Descôteaux.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Jimmy Descôteaux, that was the last missing piece of Orloge Simard! Hello Jimmy!
HUGO LACHANCE: An article from January 10, 2026 by Marc-Antoine Côté in Le Quotidien mentions that it's difficult to juggle all your musical projects with family, work, organizing the Le Culte de Port-Alfred festival, and the Saint-Édouard Heritage Committee. Is there any hope of seeing Bagoth on stage, or does it remain strictly a studio project?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Not for now, because we're too busy. We have our families, Orloge Simard, and the Saint-Édouard heritage. The priority remains Orloge Simard. But we're not completely closing the door if the opportunity arises.
HUGO LACHANCE: Let's move on to the "One Song After Another" segment. We start with the title track, Martyrs Duplessis. (Clip of "Martyrs Duplessis")
HUGO LACHANCE: What is there to say about Martyrs Duplessis?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It's the theme song and the album's introduction. The "Duplessis martyrs" are followers of Maurice Duplessis in our era, evil demonic beings who return because we see connections between Duplessis's era and today. We also talk about Café Le Zénob in Trois-Rivières.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: Musically, it's a punchy tune that sets the table for the rest of the record. I like playing with time signatures (it's rarely in 4/4) and varying tempos. The group vocals on the choruses bring a catchy side, which allows even people who don't listen to metal to get hooked. It's Olivier Simard who suggested adding the "Oh!" behind the choruses.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: In the lyrics, there are connections with Quebec sovereignism and autonomism, notably the reference to René Lévesque. It's René Lévesque who had Duplessis's statue taken out of the warehouse to unveil it at the National Assembly in order to rally the unionist and nationalist electorate.
HUGO LACHANCE: We continue with La loi du cadenas. (Clip of "La loi du cadenas")
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It's a song about the Padlock Act, a special law enacted in 1937 under Duplessis to fight against communist and Bolshevik propaganda. It allowed the government to shut down premises and stop the publication of newspapers like Clarté. Duplessis used the threat of communism to silence all his political opponents.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: It's a nearly 9-minute track. The very particular guitar sound was created by Christopher Rannou. I composed solos with two guitars answering each other at the end (inspired by bands like Wishbone Ash, Thin Lizzy, or Iron Maiden) and I played with complex time signatures in 5/8, 7/8, and 9/8.
HUGO LACHANCE: The third track: Lionel Groulx. (Clip of "Lionel Groulx")
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Lionel Groulx is a major historical figure, a historian and canon who influenced René Lévesque and André Laurendeau. The song refers to his novel L'Appel de la race and advocates French-Canadian pride in the face of British influence, while keeping a touch of humor and irony. It's on this song that we hear the book Histoire du Canada français being struck on a nightstand as percussion!
HUGO LACHANCE: We continue with Louis IX dans le ciel de Trois-Rivières. (Clip of "Louis IX dans le ciel de Trois-Rivières")
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It's a text born from the crossing of two of my passions: Saint Louis (King of France who died during the 8th Crusade, whose cemetery where Duplessis rests is named after) and horse racing. In the song, the ghostly spirit of Saint Louis descends from the sky, angered by horse betting at the Trois-Rivières racetrack, and unleashes his fury on the city.
HUGO LACHANCE: We finish this section with Maluron Malurette. (Clip of "Maluron Malurette")
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: It's an instrumental piece built as a keyboard interlude in the tradition of Dungeon Synth and Burzum.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: The track opens with needle noises and moments of silence extracted from a vintage vinyl record of a speech given by Duplessis at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal in 1946, and concludes with the voices of the crowd singing the traditional tune Maluron Malurette.
HUGO LACHANCE: That's a huge influence anyway! It's the same style, it's just that... and I deal a lot with Carver too. You know, I mixed all the influences unconsciously, but I admit it fits! Influences mark a nice pause in the album too, in the album's pacing. It takes that to breathe a bit sometimes, and it makes it so that on the next song, we dive even harder into Antifédéralisme.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: "Anti-Quebec colonialism / Hitlerism, collaboration, and populism / Fighting and emotivism / Mackenzie King, Louis Saint-Laurent, J.G. Diefenbaker / All against the Sacred Heart..."
HUGO LACHANCE: That's pretty hot! The lyrics are really hot! What does this song have to say?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: I indulged myself on that one. I sort of transformed Duplessis's autonomism toward Ottawa. We know Duplessis was very autonomist; he wanted to keep as much power as possible within the province. Besides, he created the provincial tax to have more leeway, and he's the one who adopted Quebec's flag. There's a great nationalism-autonomism in there. And with our independence-minded and sovereignist soul to make Quebec a country, I liked calling it Antifédéralisme, since he himself was really not for federalism.
HUGO LACHANCE: And in there, we find themes of federalism, but mostly presented from a negative point of view. And we agree it's negative for Quebec, objectively speaking. And precisely, you mentioned it earlier, colonialism, these are all aspects of federalism that Duplessis didn't like, but that sovereignists don't like either.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Through that, I talk about Duplessis's autonomism, but there are a lot of stylistic figures and created images. It's truly through words; they aren't complete sentences or classical verses, they are words that oppose or assemble each other. Once again, I like listeners' interpretation to take precedence. When you listen to it the first time, the lyrics are hard to grasp, but when you read the lyrics while listening to the music, it really opens another door. Everyone can make up their own mind. The lyrics are colorful and the way you use words is really well written, for real.
HUGO LACHANCE: I must also say that on the album, we move forward in time. It's chronological!
ANDY ELLEFSEN: "Everyone is sick of Godbout!" It was Godbout who took power at that moment.
HUGO LACHANCE: Does that lead toward the Quiet Revolution?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Yes! Duplessis had a first term, Godbout took power afterward, then it went back to Duplessis until his death. We're pretty much in that part. There are temporal markers, but it's the Duplessis era that quietly paved the way for the Quiet Revolution. It's Godbout who created Hydro-Québec initially, but it's with René Lévesque later that Hydro-Québec took on the scale we know today thanks to nationalization.
HUGO LACHANCE: What I meant by that is that on this album, we obviously talk about Duplessis, but after his era, the Quiet Revolution set in and completely changed Quebec. There's like an opposition. The album seems to stop there, and after that, it would be another genre of music.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It's thanks to the Quiet Revolution that we were able to make an album like this! We're really glad we didn't live in Duplessis's era, but making a work of art out of it several decades later is nice. We're more Lévesque and Parizeau than Duplessis.
HUGO LACHANCE: It's because of that that Québécois became uninhibited too. I think of Maurice Richard when he started speaking out against Campbell and the National League executives: it sparked riots, and then people spoke up. Quebec truly took its place. And in this tune, we can hear an excerpt of a speech by Duplessis during the break before the end.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: We can hear the speech coming from the vinyl Andy was talking about. When he mentioned his oratorical talent, we had to put it in the album at least once to show the effect with a metal touch. I bring back the intro from the beginning, but I lower the key little by little until the end.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: You don't notice it immediately, but the key drops constantly until the very end!
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: I have to say it too: I composed all the instruments, but Christopher Rannou did a hell of a production job on the left and right guitars to bring out the power. At the end, when Duplessis's speech gets more intense, he adds higher-pitched guitars.
HUGO LACHANCE: Everything is super well done! Christopher did an exceptional job on that, I'm really glad to know that.
HUGO LACHANCE: We continue with Talbot néogoth, a track I particularly like!
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It's the best title! Very pulp, very cool.
HUGO LACHANCE: I read the context: "In June 1958, Antonio Talbot, Minister of Roads, fled the capital in a Cadillac Coupé DeVille toward Bagotville, in Father Boucher's parish, to isolate himself in the face of the natural gas scandal. Later, he runs up the stairs toward the Casavant organ, stares at the illuminated keyboard, and starts playing, wildly, possessed Count Basie style." What a story! What is that story?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Actually, this story is 95% invented. The only true fact is that there was the natural gas scandal. Antonio Talbot, who was the MNA for Chicoutimi and Minister of Roads, was involved in that. The Quebec Natural Gas Corporation had bought back Hydro-Québec's network and several ministers speculated on shares to enrich themselves. It was pure corruption, and that's the real story. But everything else, the regionalist side and the car escape toward the parish of Bagotville, is my universe. I love our region, so I imagined this minister in psychosis going to take refuge in Saint-Alphonse church in La Baie.
HUGO LACHANCE: I find that so funny! A minister in full crisis walking into the church, downing a twelve-pack, and settling at the Casavant organ!
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It's a text where we drop the politician's diction to move toward something more theatrical and wacky. And for the jazz, it's Guillaume who had the idea to integrate that musically.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: At first, it was the tune I found the weakest because the jazz section wasn't there yet. When Andy sent me his text and mentioned that Antonio Talbot started playing Count Basie, it gave me the idea. At first, I wanted to have real priests sing, but it was too complicated. So I decided to create a real jazz section.
HUGO LACHANCE: And how did you build that part?
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: I listened to Count Basie for a month! At first, I wanted to make a collage with original excerpts, but because of copyright, it was impossible. So I asked Gabriel Pearson (from the band Mordicus), who is a musical genius, to compose a jazz chord progression for me in the style of the era. He wrote the sheet music and played the piano solo. I sent the notes to Michel Bélanger who recorded a jazz drum beat with brushes, I played the bass with my thumb to mimic an upright bass, and we brought in Clément Jaune on saxophone to improvise over it.
HUGO LACHANCE: The mix between black metal, jazz, and Andy's punk vocals works so well! Jazz back then was underground music, club music, and the hot nights of Montreal. It has real historical and artistic relevance in the album.
HUGO LACHANCE: We move on to Saint-Jean-de-Dieu.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It's the only text on the album that Guillaume wrote alone. And it's a 100% serious text, without any irony, because it deals with one of the darkest tragedies in our history: the Duplessis Orphans.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: It's the story of children falsely declared mentally ill so that the provincial government could collect higher federal subsidies of $2.25 per day per head in psychiatric hospitals. Thousands of sane children were locked up, mistreated, subjected to straightjackets and electroshocks in religious institutions.
HUGO LACHANCE: The vocal delivery on that song is of brutal horror, it's very powerful.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: It's a very dark vocal, almost satanic, to denounce the malice and drift of the Church's power under Duplessis's ultramontane regime. Musically, the end of the song concludes with a majestic guitar solo by Christopher Rannou that intertwines with my initial piano solo, followed by a large choir shouting: "Free our bruised hearts, remember our..."
HUGO LACHANCE: We finish the album with Schefferville.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: It's the closing song, the outro track. Schefferville is where Maurice Duplessis died in September 1959, in an Iron Ore Company cabin during a visit to the mining region.
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: We wanted to create the coldest, most Nordic atmosphere possible. With the sound of the wind, keyboard pads, and acoustic guitar, you can feel the mourning and the end of an era. Dying in a wooden camp in the middle of Quebec's far north, there's nothing more black metal than that!
HUGO LACHANCE: That concludes the album masterfully. The pacing is perfect and everything is thought out down to the smallest details.
HUGO LACHANCE: What's coming up for Bagoth? Will there be a sequel?
GUILLAUME BOUCHARD: The second album is already entirely composed in my head and demoed! It will be even more epic, with songs over 20 minutes long.
ANDY ELLEFSEN: We'd like to explore the theme of Quebec independence and sovereignty, continuing our nation's historical fresco.
HUGO LACHANCE: And what about Orloge Simard?
ANDY ELLEFSEN: Now that the live album Le somptueux théâtre psychiatrique is out, we're working on Orloge Simard's next studio album. Most of the songs are already composed!
HUGO LACHANCE: GUILLAUME BOUCHARD, ANDY ELLEFSEN, a big thank you for coming to L'Album Podcast! Thanks to the Hopera microbrewery, thanks to Maurice Duplessis for the statue, and we'll see you very soon for another episode!