L'ENFANT SAUVAGE

Members familiar with this French band will know that they play Progressive Death Metal with a heavy emphasis on Thrash. Their last studio album, 2012's L'Enfant Sauvage, is as good as it's predecessor, 2008's The Way of All Flesh.

The big jump in the quality of the band's music from 2005's From Mars To Sirius was that it was improved by two factors: better songwriting and greatly improved production values. The improved production values remain for 2012's L' Enfant Sauvage as does the improved songwriting. My only problem with this is that it feels like the band might have hit their plateau in progressing, which always gives me cause for concern with Progressive Death groups.

What is an improvement over 2008's The Way Of All Flesh is the band's improved playing skills. These four gents are firing on all eight cylinders and songs like the lead track Explosia are just what the name implies. The playing, songwrting and vocal performances are explosive on several tracks of this album and are evened out by relatively 'calmer' numbers like Born In Winter before the fireworks start up again.

The album ends on a high note with the strong closing track The Fall. I just hope this band does not get sterile with over producing and other distractions that really is not called for in Extreme/Tech metal.

Now, I have to go back and pretend that I only like old prog. 4 stars for this fine effort.