Tanork scheduled for October 10 at Menä Röck in Tunis.

On October 10, a language that is several centuries old will resonate at the Menä Röck Festival in Tunis, not far from the prestigious site of Carthage. Not in a fest-noz, but at the heart of an international metal festival. This language is Breton. Those who will bring it to the stage are called Tanork.

Death metal sung in Breton.

Tanork will be in Tunis on Saturday, October 10, for the third edition of the Menä Röck Festival at the Institut Français de Tunisie. Initiated by Nabil Boubaker and Aurélie Vallée, the festival will also host bands from Tunisia, France, Austria, and Greece. On Sunday, Mass Hysteria will take the stage.

The Breton trio continues to generate buzz after their performance at the Interceltique with Eluveitie. For Tanork, this new date in Tunis will be a first, marking their first concert outside of Europe.

"We were like crazy. We accepted the proposal right away." A spontaneous reaction that speaks volumes about the surprise caused by this invitation. "It's an opportunity that few bands singing in Breton can seize, so we feel lucky. Plus, it's probably something that won't happen again anytime soon, so we're going to go all out!"

Breton, an obvious choice

To understand Tanork, one must start with their personal history with the Breton language. Melaine and Eflam were educated in Breton from kindergarten through high school. Morgann, on the other hand, was educated in Breton from kindergarten through middle school. The choice to sing in Breton did not come as a marketing concept or an artificial desire to differentiate themselves. It is their language. "It's a decision we made quite naturally," they explain. The band had initially started writing in English, but Breton soon took precedence. "We sing in Breton because it's our language, the one we feel close to, and unfortunately, fewer and fewer people speak it in everyday life. Singing in Breton is a way to preserve the language."

An approach that gives depth to the lyrics.

The musicians explain that they feel more comfortable in Breton than in English. Their vocabulary is richer, and the sentence structures are different. Even the sound of the language contributes to the band's identity. In other words, Breton is not simply laid over death metal: it directly influences how Tanork writes and composes its universe.

A marginalized language in extreme music

The paradox is interesting. Death metal is an international music genre. Tanork's musical codes can be understood in Rennes, Tunis, London, or elsewhere. The band's influences draw particularly from old-school death metal, with references such as Death, Morbid Angel, Suffocation, or Sepultura. But when the singer takes the microphone, Breton becomes the voice of this music.

For Tanork, the fact that the audience may not necessarily understand the lyrics is not a major obstacle. "Death Metal is music where listeners generally do not understand what they are listening to, even if they speak the language fluently..." They do not expect a fundamentally different reaction from the Tunisian audience.

"Delivering intensity, violence in a musical state"

So what are they looking to convey in Tunis? The answer is particularly interesting: "The same thing we usually do in concert: delivering intensity, violence in a musical state, with kindness." However, Tanork does not reduce this violence to a mere search for musical brutality. The band also wishes to convey "compassion and support for oppressed populations around the world." Their lyrics address political and social issues, including wars, colonization, and animal exploitation.

Representing Brittany… without claiming to speak for it

The question of Breton representation abroad might seem obvious. However, Tanork is much more cautious. "We do not think we represent Brittany abroad. You cannot summarize such a beautiful country as Brittany just by one band." The group prefers to talk about what it can genuinely bring to the stage: its music and its language. A way to showcase Brittany without claiming to embody it entirely.

And Mass Hysteria in all this

The coincidence of the programming is also linked to Brittany through the presence of Mass Hysteria, whose singer Mouss Kelai was born in Brest to a Breton mother and a Kabyle immigrant father, a union activist at the arsenal for forty years. The band's Breton reputation has long stuck with them, having three Breton members at the founding of the group in 1993, including Erwan Disez from Al Kapott, a group from Bellevue and the cult Brest punk scene. However, Mass Hysteria was created and developed in Paris thanks to Stephan Jacquet, the founding bassist, who left the band in 2012 and tragically passed away in 2021 at just fifty-three years old. Tanork will perform on Saturday, October 10, and the next day, Menä will host Mass Hysteria, one of the major French metal bands, with over thirty years of career and ten studio albums.

There is a group of young musicians internationally, sharing the same management agency as Gojira and singing in Maori, called Alien Weaponry. Tanork makes it clear: they do not personally know the members of Alien Weaponry and do not feel particularly close to their musical universe, which is more oriented towards modern groove metal. However, there is an interesting common point: the defense of marginalized languages through metal music. Tanork even extends the comparison to the Irish rap group Kneecap, which notably sings in Irish Gaelic.

From Rennes to Tunis

Tanork's journey is all the more interesting as the band is still young. Formed in Rennes around 2020, the trio released its first album, Destined to Die..., in 2023, before publishing Diskar on March 20, 2026. This second album now accompanies the band's international expansion. And on October 10, this expansion will take on a particularly symbolic form, following their performance on the Hellstage at Hellfest in 2025 and at Motocultor the same year, both major metal festivals in France. On October 10 in Tunis, the band will undoubtedly have something Breton to share.

Four Tunisian bands are scheduled: THÜNDERVEGA, PRIMORDIAL BLACK, SKADRA, and CARTAGENA. The total lineup alternates between melodic, metalcore, black, new core, doom, death, and alternative metal, featuring both emerging and internationally established groups. A remarkable achievement for this festival, easily accessible by plane for Europeans and promising a beautiful festive late season filled with encounters and relaxation, as the festival's subtitle Crossroads suggests.

Eric LEOST

All the programming of the Mëna Röck

https://menafestival.com/