HÄXAN

One might argue that it's not a 5-star album for the simple reason of being obviously unappealing to a large fraction of potential listeners, be it random people or us progheads. Peculiar as RIO often gets, Haxan is not easy to get into and, for the most part, can not be really called rock music (dark ambient might be a better label if we are to use one). But so what?

I mark this as a masterpiece of progressive rock music. Yes, ones left untouched by its atmosphere would call it boring and just bad as "nothing is happening", but there is always such risk when it comes to atmospheric music. It's working for me and working for all those collaborator reviewers who dare to accept challenges set by Art Zoyd's ouevre. And most importantly: it brings a really unique experience. Experimental music is always something worth checking out, something interesting at the very least, but when the experiment is successful it just rises on another level. It's like a new, useful invention ready to be exploited, with no substitution available.

The state of mind this album is capable of delivering is really unimitable and inexpressible (thought I'm trying). For example, the very first seconds of Nuits and I already feel devastated, scared and somewhat empty inside. Meanwhile, the way the band throws you in dark forlorn buildings, bleak corridors and heaven-knows-where-else (where are we after the steel test of Epreuves d'acier when the water flows?) is never really "boring" or predictable - the band provides really eclectic and intriguing music throughout the album.

One piece of warning about the album I would like to give is that one ought not to start with the first track. As distinct from most prog albums, here the longest song seems to be the weakest one and is actually a compilation of excerpts from the next album u-B-I-Q-U-e (the fact that the same reviewers praise this track and slog u-B-I-Q-U-e strikes me as rather odd). It's still worth your time but only after you get into the rest of the album. The easiest track to listen to must be the brutal Epreuves d'acier - lots of crushing stuff going on. Still it won't really work somewhere on the seaside during daylight, obviously.

Highly recommended for the travelers keen on tours to the most gloomy, derelict and alien places.