ONIRIC METAL

Lalu

Progressive Metal

3.72 | 29 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

LiquidEternity
Prog Reviewer

This is a gem that goes, I think, rather too unnoticed.

While this album features all the usual trappings of progressive metal, namely the male vocalist with the high singing range, the secret bass player (I dare you to find one on almost any prog metal album), the double bassed riffs, the wild guitar solos, and vampires, it also plays around with some nice unexplored areas. The title, Oniric Metal, should set this apart as its own distinct form of music. The mastermind, Vivien Lalu, plays the keyboard but doesn't hog the lead (a rarity that is not very common in album composed by keyboardists); rather, he hurls his sounds into a tangible but still ethereal wall of ambiance, playing for mood rather than to explode with his wild chops all over the Glossy 88.

If it weren't for the clever use of keyboards as a backing soundscape (I say clever because it's not common in metal, not because Vivien thought it up himself), this album would be average or slightly below. It's very enjoyable, but the song structures are pretty standard and a lot of the riffs are nothing terribly new. But tunes like Timestop and Night in Poenari turn into beasts of sound and feeling through this man's genius sense for sonics. Truth be told, the lyrics are wonderfully corny. What do we have here? Let's see: time traveling, vampires, werewolves, pot-smoking aliens, and a few other standard metal lyrical ideas. But, in the end, they are not the point.

Overall, a fairly silly and mildly unimportant release, but a very well crafted one at that, with some fun vocals and absolutely great keyboards. Oh, and yes, Lalu does bust out some wicked fake plastic ivory tickling here and there. Give it a listen. Not mindblowing, but pretty darn good.

LiquidEternity | 4/5 | 2008-9-28

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Share this LALU review

Social review comments () BETA

Review related links

Send comments to LiquidEternity
Report this review (#184018)
Buy LALU music online with PA partners
Show all LALU MP3/Stream
Go to LALU page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
Go to Oniric Metal page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
Search the Forum for LALU related discussions