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Shylock - Île de Fièvre CD (album) cover

ÎLE DE FIÈVRE

Shylock

 

Symphonic Prog

3.74 | 106 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

sgtpepper
4 stars The second album by Shylock brings a bit more mature record but without major changes in the sound and with equal appetite to experiment. You must get this album for the sake of the first track which is a gorgeous 13-minute piece and the best work created by Shylock. So many ideas, motives, artistic quality packed, there aren't more than 30 seconds with one static motive. That is the cornerstone of the record and will let you out of breath for a couple of minutes after the finish. The keyboardist and drummer are the main entertainers here seconded by a tasty King Crimson-like guitar player. Keyboards are not the most original one but very well absorbed from King Crimson, Pulsar (mellotron) and Genesis (synths, piano). The chords are sometimes very solemn - they represent this masterpiece very well. The drummer holds very well on his own - I can't compare his manners to any other band, he is quite distinctive.

The rest of the tracks is more experimental, less fluid and arguably of a lesser quality. "Le sang des capucines" reminds of the 1973 King Crimson - the guitar is fantastic and raw. It sounds like a power trio (no keyboards). The keyboard player compensates with lush and symphonic "Choral". "Himogène" is a grooving jazz-rock number, well played but a mediocre composition. "Laocksetal" is a dynamic workout for all players, pretty dark and experimental with melody. Percussions and mellotron are as close as it get to King Crimson. The long composition is fine but stretches for a bit too long. I actually prefer the more accessible melancholic "Le dernier" with melodic guitar and electric piano although the sound quality is as if coming from a demo session. My preference may be based on the fact that similar to the first track, we can hear echoes of Genesis (75-77).

Well, the first track is a 5-star quality and the other ones alternate between 3 to 4 stars so I give it 4 stars in the end. Shylock is a unique spot among my CDs as no other band sounds this way.

sgtpepper | 4/5 |

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