Mass Hysteria

French alternative metal band Mass Hysteria was formed in 1993 by singer Mouss Kelai and guitarist Erwan Disez, with guitarist Yann Heurtaux and drummer Raphaël Mercier joining two years later. The quartet recorded their debut album Le Bien-Être et la Paix in 1997 and went on to release nine more albums at a consistent rate over the next two and half decades, from the trailblazing Contraddiction (1999)—which went to number 20 in France and is credited with single-handedly boosting the profile of French metal—and 2001's De Cercle en Cercle—which marked the arrival guitarist Olivier Coursier, who also steered samples until his departure in 2007—to 2005's self-titled pop-rock effort and 2012's L'Armée Des Ombres. The band celebrated their twentieth anniversary at the Olympia in Paris on 5 April 2013 and welcomed new guitarist Frédéric Duquesne for 2015 album Matière Noire, which was followed by live album Le Trianon (2016). They recruited another new member in the form of bassist Jamie Ryan for 2018's Maniac and after a five year break from recording, returned in 2023 with the mini-album Tenace - Part 1, which went to number 11 on the French charts, as the first part of a diptych.