MACHIAVEL

The drummeer is the grandson of classical composer Eugene Ysaye and is now responsible for this Belgian-state owned classic rock radio station and we hear all the great prog moments now and then during the week and on sunday morning. Asd for the album , this is with the following two , just average rock for the era.

WELCOME TO THE DESERT

I guess that very few of you know that Belgium is a desert. Located in the North of Europe (well not the very North because Scandinavia is no desert) this small country is a unique desert. A rock desert, of course. Just look at the very short list of bands on prog archive from Belgium (but you could extend the list to the overall rock music).

Not only is this list short, but it includes so many obscure bands that no one would ever listen to that I guess that about ten fingers are enough to count ten important ones (anyway, as far as I know, human beings only have ten fingers...). Maybe that the creator knew about Belgian rock while he created the human race...

I remember having exchanged a few mails with Eric (Neuteboom) about this and he was trying to console me and told me that Belgium produces the best chocalates and beers in the world. And this is true. But still, in terms of rock...

So, once came "Machiavel". I am biased for lots of reasons. First, I know one band member (Roland) since I was six or so (our mutual parents were friends and we shared some kids experiences but he has probably forgot this). Second, they are Belgian (but I agree that this should not be sufficient) and finaly, a colleague of mine (Frank) was almost their roadie for a very long time so we frequently exchange feelings about them at work.

Now, about the music. Well, actually as the most famous fanzine ever produced in Belgium in the seventies ("More") would tell, "Machiavel" belonged to the "Eurock" genre. It meant : lots of keyboards, long compositions, and complex music. This is exactly what you will find on their debut album.

In terms of compositions my favorites songs are "Johan's Brother Told Me" mainly for its brilliant intro, "Cheerlesness" for its fabulous intrumental final as well as the wonderful finale (fully keyboards oriented) and "Leave It Where It Can Stay". Do listen to these songs, it won't hurt you, I guarantee.

A weak moment ? Yes : "Cry No More". Mellowish and pityfull vocals (sorry Marc). As he said "You must promise you cry no more".

Everyone will tell you that vocals are not on par. Don't worry, Machiavel knows about that. This aspect of their work will be taken care of as soon as in their second album. And this was a good decision (sorry Marc).

Back to the desert now..."Machiavel" paved the way for almost any rock band which will follow in Belgium. They will be the first Belgian band to play in Forest National while being top of the bill (our largest concert hall at that time). Before Machiavel, the Desert was one of the driest one. After Machivel, some oasises will grow.

For these reasons, I will be very gentle with their first release (but you know that I usually don't act like this). Three stars from a fan. For the average proghead, I have to admit that two stars would be the normal rating. Machiavel will produce better releases after this one.

3 stars for Machiavel debut, leaning more to 2 stars then 4. Most of the songs are more art rock then progressive, it's just to watered down for me. If judging by this album alone, Machiavel would fit better in crossover genre of prog than eclectic but I didn't have a listen of other albums just yet.

For me this album's weak points are sort of the strong ones, the most sentimental and maybe needlesly prolonged ballads are the ones that I could listen to once in a while, "Cry No More" has a decent guitar solo to which it builds up bit slow, and for another example "Leave It Where It Can Stay" is more of the same with more synths in the play and guitar follow them nicely, more of that sad atmosphere going on. All of those by the way, very vocal oriented. "When Johan Died" is more reminiscent of the classic prog genre and being rock in its form, and I guess the spacey opener "Johan's Brother..." is ok, but even it overstays it's welcome. All the rest I find pretty unmemorable, except the previously unreleased "To Be Free", I remember that one cause it's straight up rock'n'roll and if it were me I would leave it unreleased. And while talking about these new tracks, I can only see hard fans going for it, "Don't Remember" being the only decent one that's more like the ballads from the original. There is some potential in this band and I presume by looking at ratings that after the debut MACHIAVEL gets much better.