> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blackmetalzine.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Interview: Bagoth - URL: https://blackmetalzine.com/interview-bagoth/ - Published: 2026-09-11T13:00:48.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-11T13:00:48.000Z - Description: Interview with Bagoth on Martyrs Duplessis, the Duplessis regime's dark legacy in Quebec, and historical black metal as political art. Read more! - Author: Fractal - Tags: Interviews ## Introduction: **For 18 years and 4 months Maurice Duplessis served as Quebec's premiere for the longest period of time in Quebec's history. He was known for:** ⬤ Enacting the Padlock Act (1937), causing a constitutional crisis, criminalizing people suspected of communism which was intentionally worded vaguely so anyone accused could be jailed without due process. ⬤ Using anti-communist hyperbolic rhetoric as a political tool to manipulate public fear, despite the fact that evidence strongly suggests communism wasn't pervasive in Quebec during this era. ⬤ Enlisting people in service of the regime to stuffed ballot boxes with fraudulent votes and he manipulated elections through patronage and voter intimidation. ⬤ Maintaining an aggressive anti-union position, frequently deploying law enforcement to break work strikes using violence. ⬤ Using Bill 19 he mandated that unions terminate anyone suspected of having communist ties, which was such an extreme move it ended up isolating Catholic conservative unions in addition to libral ones. He viewed all workforce unions as a threatening form of dissent. ⬤ All forms of dissent were considered "communism" or "bolshevism," which made the Padlock Law's vagueness a primary legal weapon to socially oppress anyone who disagreed with his policies or attempted to organize rebellions. ⬤ He fiercely opposed Canada's federal initiatives to expand social welfare programs. ⬤ Transferring orphans to psychiatric hospitals to exploit federal funding, creating the Duplessis Orphans scandal. This systemic corruption involved close collaboration with the Catholic Church to target unwedded mothers, who themselves sometimes were institutionalized and forced into forced labor for shelter. *Editorial note: This interview is about the history and the influences it has/had on the band and its members. It is not a political statement whatsoever.* --- ![](https://blackmetalzine.com/content/images/2026/09/image.png) Guillaume & Andy in front of the grave of Maurice Duplessis. Photo Credit: Maxime Bernier **After approaching the band with a similar list of offenses the Duplessis Regime was known for, I decided to just share a very thorough, well-written private message a Quebec native was kind enough to write for me to the the band through e-mail and simply ask if it sounded right. From the perspective of this Quebec native who's message I'll paraphrase since it isn't featured here, Bagoth appeared to be invoking historical generational trauma in Quebec's history as an artistic medium, and not in any way glorifying the Duplessis regime. He said its relatively unheard of for anyone to glorify Duplessis and in his view would have to be uneducated psychopaths to hold those views in modern day Quebec.** **Especially since there really aren't a lot of limits on the levels of provocative theatrics the genre practically solicits creative licenses for bands explore, as someone based in the South-Eastern USA with only first impressions listening to this album and whatever skimming through digitally translated lyrics on subject I knew almost nothing about was worth, it made the most sense to me to be direct with the band and in one sentence or two just ask for a simple fact check. This ended up being an excellent way to hit it off. Sometimes its best to jump in the deep end and see what happens.** **Andy's response to my first e-mail, which included the description from the band's Bandcamp page went as followed:** As mentioned in our album description, nothing is black and white in politics and in human existence, and it's important to look at history objectively. The era was different from today. A lot of today's historians try to write about Duplessis and his time without just saying it was The Great Darkness and to see what was done objectively. He was also an autonomist against Ottawa and tried to create a Québec identity with the Québec's flag and created a Québec's tax to have more power in his province. On the other hand, for example, we are not forgetting the Duplessis Orphans, a horrible religious crime and drama in our past society or the iron sold “one cent per ton” to American companies. It's a big part of our history, we are not done analyzing it. One thing is sure, it's that Duplessis and his era are fascinating. **Speaking of which, one of the most fascinating things I found about spending time with this album is the way it seemed to catalyze complex realizations about political and social sciences I don't think I would have had otherwise. It's such a deep subject I'd rather take this conversation to deeper territory sooner than later. As I've already shared through previous discussions with you guys that are too all over the place to feature, this obviously did involve some amount of research away from your music, but that's just learning from general research and wouldn't consider that noteworthy. Whereas the implication that time spent with this record being catalytic implies the music itself was a catalyst for complex realizations that came directly from me spending time with the record. This "complexity," for example, would involve things like examining nuances about politics in Quebec through a historical lens (from the Duplessis regime era) and a modern lens simultaneously, and then examining historical and modern aspects about US politics the same way.** **Out of all questions everything I just mentioned could potentially introduce, now that we're in the deep end of the pool, I want to ask you to compare the beginning of writing this album during COVID, to however the progress developed between the years of 2024 and 2025 (outside of musical endeavors with other projects of course), and I would like to ask; did you guys ever find it meaningfully coincidental, or in other words, synchronistic, to be producing a record with this theme while the political landscape of your neighbor here in the states gradually permutated into what it became and continues to become since the release this record? Additionally, a follow-up question I'd like to ask now and request you insert responses where you see fit; am I the only one who thinks Martyrs Duplessis couldn't have come at a better time?** The project stayed the same from the beginning to the end; the external social and political context didn’t influence the project. The album is really anchored in the Duplessis era, in a Quebec context, with an artistic touch that is ours. There are similarities with the USA currently, but very few. Quebec is quite unique; it must be remembered that we were forcibly annexed to Canada. The autonomism and nationalism of Duplessis, who was right-wing and conservative, was a response to this colonized state that represented the French Canadian people of the time (and still today). We are completely opposed to the right-wing and conservative aspect of its governance, but Duplessis’ nationalism can be seen as an action of resistance. But it is true that the album’s release coincides with a global political climate marked by a rise of the Right. We can certainly say that the album is timely. That being said, we are happy not to have had him as premier, we are rather left-wing separatists who are campaigning for more social programs, like René Lévesque in the 70’s and the nationalization of Hydro Québec when he was with the Liberal Party. **I couldn't help but notice this album's execution avoids the most common types of problematic features critics of this genre widely consider to be toxic, such as political endorsements by artists expressing support for oppressive forms of governing (autocracy) and/or extreme politics. Martyrs Duplessis is a great example in my view of how uniting political science themes with Historical Black Metal is still open real estate, even if/when doing so involves tyranny or similar forms of oppression within concept album's central thesis. I really feel like one key ingredient that "made this work" is the album feels relatively non-partisan in the sense that it doesn't feel like Andy and Guillaume are featured as characters within the ethos of the band's artistic depictions of this period of "Duplessist darkness." Opposition against Duplessis's politics is thoroughly evident, but the approximate origin of this opposition on the left-center-right spectrum doesn't even seem like a feature here, which makes sense since you guys weren't alive back then. Personally I really appreciated the "multilayered" modular shifts in narrational features throughout the lyrics and wanted to bring attention to those nuances. Conceptually the presentation makes me think of the idea of spotlight operators and shadow-puppeteers performing both rolls simultaneously. I'm going to go ahead and throw a dart blindfolded and simply ask, how do you feel about all that?** You got it right, the idea of spotlight operators and shadow-puppeteers performing both roles simultaneously is a good way to describe our roles in this project. We really wanted to create a universe inspired by Duplessis and his era. We also didn't want to have only historical facts. We really wanted to give a horrific shadow to the narrative of the album. Theatricality is very present in the album, both musically and narratively. This is an important time in Québec’s history and there is so much material to create, it was a unique playground for us, especially since this era has not been exploited much in the artistic world in Quebec. **Just incase it's not obvious to everyone, can you comment on how the satirical use of role-playing/acting was one of many literary devices incorporated in your multifaceted approaches to storytelling? For example, I found it really interesting to notice all the ways "breaking character" momentarily happens in the lyrics, which introduced elements like self-mockery while impersonating Duplessis's followers, or for example comparing Maurice to a cult leader (which disambiguated the aforementioned 'opposition' mentioned in the previous question enough to identify that position). Instead of blurring the lines between hyperbole and personal opinion, moments like that did the opposite. I feel like features like that should eradicate anyone's suspicions that you guys are endorsing the ideology of that era in my opinion, but I thought I'd bring it up and give you guys a chance to comment anyway.** We incorporated two figures into the concept of the album and into the songs, as well as a lot of humor, without it showing too much. There is the clearer voice, which is the interpretation of a politician from the 50s in Quebec, in this case Maurice Duplessis, and the scream voice, which is a bit of a demonic specter of the Union Nationale. We play a lot with temporality, sometimes there are elements of the present that are mixed with the world of Duplessis in the first part of the twentieth century. Other times, it is a question of stories invented through true elements, such as *Talbot Néogoth*, which is a mixture of a true fact, which is the natural gas scandal, with a story of Minister Talbot taking refuge in a church in Saguenay, which is completely invented. **I felt like intentional variations in creative direction like those mentioned above elucidated enough of what was necessary unlock the accessibility and freedom to explore this theme confidently, dramatically, and at times even provocatively, without the weight of the theme's intersectionality with authoritarianism restricting freedom (or in other words, to me it seems like your strategies were strategically provocative in a ways the genre itself and consumers of it expect, but not enough to where the potential of people misidentifying the content with one of 2 four letter acronyms seemed very high, at least beyond a very first impression).** **It doesn't sound like you guys walked on eggshells when making this. In my view it sounds more like you guys sprinted through a minefield because you knew where not to step (figuratively speaking). I remember wondering if the ways I reacted initially was exactly what you guys intended, but the thought that this multilayered Black Metal opus came together naturally and chaotically like a Picasso portrait during a creative process that had very little to do with the level of foresight I'm imagining, that thought is honestly equally or maybe even more intriguing. So, which is it; one, the other, a little bit of both, or something else entirely? In any case it's extremely uncommon for an album in this genre to be this thought provoking, and I hope these questions mirror that.** We think that the opus reflects our own taste in art and music. It's hard to describe how we made the album, it's really a mix of Guillaume's music and Andy's lyrics, which created a pretty unique universe in the metal world. Like we said before, very few musicians talked about Duplessis, it’s like taboo. As far as we are concerned, we have never been afraid to address elements of our national history, no matter how beautiful or ugly. We believe that our history should be brought to light and so should our creative spirit. We are a small French-speaking nation in an English-speaking Sea, it is important to assume what we are and to export our art and culture, so we will make the world a richer universe. It is important that our culture survives over time, as is also the case for the Catalans, the Bretons or the Corsicans, for example. **One area that's been interesting for me to learn about is the fact that despite Duplessis advocating in the past for greater autonomy for Quebec as a province, the provincial nationalism aspect meant that this autonomy was limited to remaining within the Canadian Federation. From what I researched I believe the liberals/leftists in that time period had an almost 30 year run and was the party that held more separatist views, whereas the rightwing/conservatives were the Provincial Nationalists?** Union National, the Duplessis’ political party, was the national autonomist party, but into the confederation like you said, he wanted more power for the province. For example, he created a provincial tax to have more maneuvering power to make decisions on Quebec territory. He is the one who created Québec's flag, 17 years before Canada’s flag. In regard to the Québec Liberal Party, the leftists with the separatist views, it was in the 1960 decade. People like René Lévesque, Jacques Parizeau and François Aquin were in the Liberal Party before creating the Parti Québécois in which making Québec a country was and still is the first goal. **I think for readers outside of Canada (and perhaps Canadians outside of Quebec) it would be helpful if we could clarify what "Anti-Federalism" in this historical context means, and how it largely relates to how Duplessis opposed the centralization of power from Ottowa, but was not against existing as a part of Canada. After all, his political power as a Premier of Quebec wouldn't exist if his status wasn't part of the architectural hierarchy of the Canadian Federation. Clarifying that "Anti-Federalism" does not mean "Anti-Canadian Federation" might help people (especially in the USA (where I'm based)) avoid oversimplifying these concepts due to being so used to strictly bipartisan politics.** **For example, theoretically speaking, the most extreme version of Federalism would be the complete decentralization of power to the point that a central government would barely have any power or simply not exist at all, and the result would be such a loosely bound confederacy of states it would practically be like a group of individual countries. Whereas inversely, the most extreme form of Unitarianism would be (Left or Right Wing) Totalitarian Unitarianism, encompassing the entire authoritarian spectrum, and all of these ideas (the axis of Sovereignty) cut across party lines and form their own axis/axes in Quebec political science (please correct me if I'm wrong by the way). Discussing how provincial autonomy was used as a shield to protect his own power sounds like a productive goal to me.** Yes, what you say seems correct. Duplessis was against Canadian federalism and wanted more autonomy because the federalism at that time and still today, was and is a centralizing federalism that controlled too much power. So, if Duplessis was still alive today, he would still be against Canadian federalism. For example, the federal government controls the National Defence, part of the Immigration, Justice and Health with the taxes we (Québec) send to them. **Another thing I was hoping to accomplish is to clarify that Separatism in Quebec only assumes detachment, and is therefore non-partisan. Even though the album doesn't directly discuss this subject I feel like its an important political science dynamic for people to properly understand. I've seen discussions online where people automatically assume Quebec Separatism means Quebecois separatists want to separate and establish a far-right government. Perhaps this is because they automatically think people do so with desire to oppose Canada's progressive political features? My best guess as to why people assume this is the same point I mentioned in the previous paragraph, where people's understanding of political science are too confined to binary (or left-right-center), politics, especially since the US is just a 2 party system.. it kind of makes us predisposed to thinking this way I think.** To create a country is the liberation of a nation, it's progressist and left itself. And for example, the Parti québécois with René Lévesque and Jacques Parizeau was left and created all kinds of programs and ministries to give more power to people and for the common good. The Parti québécois is a social democratic party that has introduced several of the most important social programs in Québec. The other souvrainist party, Québec solidaire, is the most left-wing party in Québec but very unassertive about the independence, only 34% of Québec solidaire’s members would vote for Québec’s independence. **With all that cleared up I think it'll be easier for people to properly visualize/conceptualize exactly what kind of far-right politician Duplessis was. He was a Clerical/Catholic Nationalist, he was a Provincial Nationalist, he was a radical conservative who violated civil rights, but he didn't meet the criteria of being a fascist. I did happen to learn however that he had people vandalize polling stations or stuff ballot boxes to cheat, which certainly has a lot in common with dismantling democratic institutions, but isn't the same thing. I think it would be good to clarify what he did and didn't do.** I would say right politician, not far-right. I think it's good to clarify what he did and didn't do, and when we look at the general portrait, he was more right than far-right. Cheating and corruption is also a left party affair in Canada and Québec. Duplessis was ultramontane but he was far from being a fascist. We say that objectively, not being a fascist is not excusing the corruption and scandals related to his reign. **As we navigate this conversation towards a stopping point I wanted to take a moment to bring attention to the musical side of things and ask about how the two of you would go about collaborating on this project.** We had just released an album in 2020 with our main Quebec-based project, Orloge Simard, when the pandemic broke out. We only had time to hold the album launch events before the live music industry ground to a halt, so we couldn't tour. Since we were all confined to our homes, it was the perfect moment to start a project the two of us had wanted to do for quite some time. The atmosphere of 2020—characterized by isolation, social distancing, curfews, and lockdowns—gave us unique time at home, creating the ideal conditions to make a black metal album. We are both people who thrive on projects and a constant need to create. So, I (Guillaume) started composing, sharing the tracks with Andy as I went; he was very enthusiastic and encouraged me to keep going. With Bagoth, I felt free to push boundaries without compromise. It was a return to my roots, as I had started out playing metal music. The goal was to make a black metal album, but I think my diverse musical influences resulted in a project that stands out in the metal scene. While the black metal influence was strong, we can't call it an exclusively black metal project; it differs significantly from the usual sound—we wanted to take things further. For his part, Andy had long envisioned a project centered on Maurice Duplessis; over a decade ago, he had even played me an old vinyl record featuring a speech by Duplessis (we actually incorporated a segment of that speech into "Antifédéralisme" and snippets into "Maluron Malurette"). With this concept, we wanted to evoke the atmosphere of old-school politicians—reminiscent of a dictator’s speech—through Andy’s vocals paired with my growls and gang vocals. The project took us five years to complete because we are perfectionists regarding the visuals, the music, and the lyrics; we wanted to create a high-quality work. Initially, I planned to play all the instruments myself, but I had to face the fact that we needed a professional drummer and guitarist, while I could handle the rest of the instrumentation (and sing alongside Andy). That is why we enlisted Michel Bélanger (Gorgut, Cynic) and Christopher Rannou-Poulin (Beyond Fiction)—two of Quebec’s finest musicians. This breathed new life into the project, which had been put on hold for a few months so we could release our other album with Orloge Simard, « Culture du culte ». We are completely independent. Guillaume composed all the music, and Andy wrote the lyrics, except for "Saint-Jean-De-Dieu." **What's next for Bagoth? Can we expect an album where another major part of Quebec history (or even pre-history) might become a central thesis for a sophomore album?** There is indeed a second, even bolder album in the works. The winning formula of the first album—both musically and vocally—will remain, but we are playing even more with musical styles and pushing the boundaries of genre-blending further. We are two people who immerse ourselves in a wide range of culture, drawing from books, poetry, music, history, and politics. We consider ourselves very open-minded and unafraid to venture into territory where few artists go. This is certainly the case with our other project, Orloge Simard—which is popular in Quebec—where we constantly push the envelope. As for the second album, the music is fully composed; all that remains is to come up with the lyrics and the concept. Among other things, we wanted to create the biggest metal song in Quebec—one that currently clocks in at 25 minutes. Once we have the lyrics, I’ll record the vocal demos, and then we’ll head into the studio. ## Signup to our newsletter and Social Media Below you can sign up to our newsletter(s) one of those is The Infernal Records, a weekly newsletter where Fractal our dedicated researcher finds new releases of the previous week that are worth your time. You can sign up here: ## Unleashing the Darkness Within become a member of Black Metal Zine Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. We also love to hear your thoughts and opinions on our articles, so feel free to follow us on our social media channels. Or join us on Black Metal Promotions, [**Discord**](https://discord.com/invite/9WBTVvNYEC?ref=blackmetalzine.com). Where we talk about all things black metal. You can find us on the following social media outlets: Facebook: Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/blackmetal.zine/](https://www.instagram.com/blackmetal.zine/?ref=blackmetalzine.com) Threads: [https://www.threads.com/@blackmetal.zine](https://www.threads.com/@blackmetal.zine?ref=blackmetalzine.com)