PART ONE

This French band plays a dark but melodic music. They are one of the few who mostly sung in English (only one is fully in French). A tleast on their debut. Their work is closely related with the early Crimsonian mood: symphonic and scary. One of the most heavy tracks is the opener Outsider, but it is almost the only one.

What's In? is almost a pastoral song which holds more from the early Genesis than any heavy rock ensemble.

At times, the use of the violin reminds me Kansas, especially during the dark Beginning and the delicate Never Die which is falls under the symphonic tradition.

One of the best track from this album is Heart Beat. Fully sung in French, it is a theatrical piece of music fully in line with the early Ange. Lyrics are very dark and bizarre. They related to the middle- ages (which was a period which influenced Ange a lot as well). I would have preferred that this album would be fully in French (as they will do later on).

A good example for this is Jester's Dance. It features bilingual lyrics, but the English parts sounds really awful (I don't know if the French accent has been exaggerated but it sounds real bad). Gilles Coppin is much more convincing in this singing role than his band mate J-P Brun. But the later plays a remarkable guitar solo as closing part of this song.

The pièce de résistance is the long Halloween. It is mostly instrumental and if you like moving guitar break and lots of synths: this one is for you. The finale is truly splendid and bombastic. I am voiceless with such a beauty. Really grandiose. The guitar can only relate me to one of the greatest solo in prog music: the fabulous, the charming, the passionate Steve during Firth Of Fifth. Yes, this one is very close to this!

In all, this album is excellent during the instrumental parts (it could have been very good if sung fully in French, but this aspect will be taken care of). If the early Genesis and Crimson, Ange and a little of Kansas can please you, no doubt that this album will do a good job as well. Dark, but not heavy. This is how this work sounds like.

The live tracks are fine as well. Sound is not too bad and the most interesting angle of the live version of Jester's Dance is the violin play which has the leading role. This is probably one of the best assets from this band which holds a very good multi-instrumentalist with J-P Brun.

Four stars.