THE IDEAL CRASH

While their second album sprung them to international stardom, it was also clear that the small independent Bang! label could obviously not follow up with distribution and promotion , Islands snapped dEUS up (the previous one was only distributed by them) and it shows right away with a rather pointless artwork (the previous two sleeves were homemade by Trouvé), I find also this album relatively uninspired and even subdued compared to the previous two. Stef Carlens had also left the group to follow his side-project and this obviously hurt the band.

Don't get me wrong, this is still a full-fledged dEUS album but it is less daring and has a more business-as-usual feel but there are still many good tracks. Magic Hour is one of the few highlights with strong violin/cello work and moody tones. The title track and Magdalena are rather tedious IMHO and the almost-country Instant Street with dubious string arrangements is sub-par even if it develops into a scorching end. A rather derange-some Goes Down First track is relatively adventurous but contrary to previous albums, this one is not quite successful even if there are some lovely Arab-tinged strings mixed in, but at least they tried something different in that track as they did on the closing track. All of the album tracks actually slowly evolve (the shortest track being over 5 minutes) but also water-down the purpose, over-extending the too few ideas they had. This might be due to the fact that many ideas were withheld for their multiple side-projects.

Somehow it is funny on how an average album actually contributes to a band's success just because the fortunes of the band are on an upswing. If you are a prospective proghead looking to investigate this group, I can only advise you to start with the first two albums as this one will take much longer to sink in and not really reward you that much.

Sensing a loss of drive even though their international success was still growing stronger, dEUS will declare a three year break to allow for band members to take up their other interests, be they the side musical projects, family life, other art forms and even for leader Tom Barman writing and directing a movie!!!! An extremely gutsy call for a group at the height of its popularity to call for such a huge break and an even greater achievement for coming back after such a lenghty break and come-up still with yet another excellent album released almost six years after this one!!!