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Halloween - Silence...au dernier rang CD (album) cover

SILENCE...AU DERNIER RANG

Halloween

 

Symphonic Prog

3.89 | 16 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Very very little that I know about this French band, Halloween. Yes, I have known and liked Helloween - the power metal band from Germany. But Halloween is totally different in music styles and genre and I love the music of Halloween. I have to thank my friend who introduced and sold this CD to me altogether with other album "Laz" which I will definitely review later. I thank him because it really broadens my knowledge about bands that I had never known before. I knew the name of this prog band but only recently that I spin the CD. I search the net to get to know about them but it's very minimum I could find it - so my review will focus only on the music the CD produces.

Also, thanks a lot to ProgArchives who has featured this excellent band on this site. That's what I like about ProgArchives .it's comprehensive and complete resources of progressive music in the world. One thing I like (as reviewer) about this site is the nature of reviewing which lets the reviewer to give his / her opinions freely about prog music with minimum rules. "The reviewer is the editor" that's exactly what I have been feeling about the way PA has adopted the approach and it does suit me perfectly! Well, in prog world, people are required to have an open mind, willingness to accept differing - and sometimes "contradicting" - opinions from people around the globe with different background and musical tastes. The open mindedness of prog people I usually term it as "progressive mind". People with a true progressive mind are those having open mind "and" prog attitudes. I was once a prog reviewer of THEN respected progressive site after I wrote many reviews at this ProgArchives. I wrote couple of reviews there and I did not know why - out of the blue - they then stopped the communication with me. Countless emails I sent to the Chief of the site with no reply from them. It's probably they thought that I was promoted as "Honorary Collaborator" at ProgArchives so that I should not be there in their team. But, they never talked to me openly. Later I knew that my name was dismantled from the site as their team, but my reviews were still posted there. Those people who run that THEN respected website are probably having progressive mind but NO progressive attitudes at all! And this is not good. It was years ago and I tend to forget the bad experience. I truly believe that people with no prog attitudes would not survive and they would turn to dust. And now I can see that ProgArchives has grown tremendously bigger and better than that site with no prog attitudes. I still can have the joy of writing prog reviews at this wonderfully crafted site. Long live ProgArchives! (Please bear in my mind, my prog friends, I have no such thing having any financial relationship or whatsoever with this site).

Wow! Why do I write the above long paragraph for this review? It's situational, my friends. It's because Halloween is not featured in many sites including the site where I was a reviewer before. The point I want to raise is that as prog head we should have progressive mind AND progressive attitudes. This is important and let's focus the discussion on Halloween ..

Violin-based Symphonic Prog

Yes, the band has been influenced by many prog legends like Genesis, King Crimson, Van der Graff or Gentle Giant .but ..one thing I love about Halloween is their own musical characteristics that differentiate themselves from any band. The use of violin extensively throughout the album is great example of how they compose the music. King Crimson's David Cross had never made his violin work dominate any album of King Crimson during his tenure with the band. Halloween's violin is basically like flute in Jethro Tull's albums. Have you ever found any Tull album without extensive use of flute? There was ..probably "A" album. But bear in mind, "A" was initially intended as Ian Anderson solo, not Tull's. Halloween music is probably comparable with After Crying in the way they use violin extensively. In addition, the use of French language with great accentuation has made the music powerful.

The album starts wonderfully with 'Conseil des démons' (4:30) through an ambient nuance with Geraldine vocal line. It then moves dynamically with powerful vocal accentuation of Geraldine in French that makes the vocal sounds truly powerful. Throughout the music flow, violin plays critical role in providing fills, augmented with keyboard / organ work that sometimes in Church organ style. Guitar is also quite dominant. At approx minute 3:27 the music changes the style nicely. It's a great opener. AT the end of the track there are people doing hand clapping .it's probably this album is a live record with excellent sound quality. The next "Le Procès" (8:00) starts off with male narration followed with another powerful female vocal line of Geraldine, backed with inventive violin and piano. Male vocal enters the music as well and it sounds like a dialogue in the music. The bass guitar also provides its tight work. I love the violin work here. In a way it reminds me to After Crying but it's not the same musically. In the middle of the track, there is a jazz rock tinge featuring violin as soloist plus a bit of bass guitar solo. Geraldine performs her acrobatic vocal line. She is a great prog vocalist!

"Waltz" (5:35) is a brilliant follow-up with Geraldine demonstrates his consistent singing style, but this time in English, and it still sounds powerful. At the end of the track there is stunning electric guitar solo, augmented with violin work. "Arthur contre Morgane" (5:55) brings the music energetically with keyboard and violin as the main instruments followed with guitar. The drumwork is also quite dynamics. Vocal only enters in the middle of the track. "Iron Mickey" (5:40) starts symphonic with music riffs using violin and other electric equipment. I love the violin solo performed in this track, followed with electric guitar solo. The album contains also the interpretation of VdGG "House with no Door" (4:15) that starts nicely with soft piano touch and nice vocal line. "Beginning" (6:25) is a great track with wonderful intro using combined piano work and violin followed nicely with violin solo. What I also enjoy is the mellow melodic song with great piano and vocal line at intro "What's in" (4:45). It flows nicely with catchy and memorable melody line supported by great singing of Geraldine. It's an accessible track and it's my favorite. As the music flows, there is also stunning guitar work in addition to violin.

Overall, this is truly an excellent symphonic progressive album with violin-based composition. The guitar solo portion is also quite extensive. I personally think this is a masterpiece work but I want to clear myself from the "halo effect" as I've just known the music recently. But for sure, this is an excellent addition to any prog music collection. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW (i-Rock! Music Community)

Gatot | 4/5 |

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