LIGHT DAMAGE

A good voice, an well composed melody or the overall mood of a song may surprise you, and sometimes a band manages to deliver an album full of that. The self title debut of Light Damage, is such an album.

When I play it, this album grabs my attention from the first second.

The opener Eden, starts with a guitar and tubular bells ticking away like a clock, before building up into a guitar driven instrumental that only stops to make room for a vocal part. Here, the first hint of vocal harmonies appears - promising more for the rest of the album. The track builds up to another crescendo that seamlessly connects to the next track Empty.

Right after the start of Empty, the band quiets down, to allow singer Nicholas-John to sing the opening verse. After that, the band builds up a great heavy progressive rock sound, ending in a guitar and keyboards taking turn soloing, leaving the final note to the organ that was wailing underneath all the time.

The master piece of the album is the mini epic The Supper of Cyprianus. Here Nicholas- John guides us through the story of this supper, that turns from a feat into the execution on the spot of a girl, convicted of being a witch. Luckily for all, she returns as an angel in the end. Well worked out keyboard melodies and guitar solos by Stephane Lecocq support the changing mood of the story from beginning to end.

After this story, we go straight to Heaven, another track that builds up gradually, this time with a key role for the rhythm guitar, which at times is almost metal like.

The short instrumental F.H.B. (For Helpful Buddies) may be dedicated to people helping the band, but I found nothing to confirm that. It's features a plucked guitar and keyboard under a melodic guitar solo. Short, and uncomplicated, it is the least grabbing track of the album.

After this, Touched proves easily to be the heaviest track of the album, with a lot of guitar and interesting, less obvious keyboard melodies.

Light Damage has, by other reviewers, been compared to Sylvan, Pendragon and IQ, but also Marillion. I'll avoid further comparisons, and prefer to think of Light Damage's music as rooted in 70s progressive rock and later neo-progressive rock, where keyboard melodies and heavy guitar work support well executed vocal work. Nicholas-John has a very slight French accent, which leads to unexpected pronunciation in some places, but it works out very nicely.

A promising debut!

What I can say easily is that "The Supper of Cyprianus" is another of 2014's top tracks, a wonderful, heavy ten minute journey. As for the rest of the album that "The Supper" is the best track from, Light Damage prove themselves a very able and enjoyable band, not quite masterful but excellent and epic. Their hard neo-prog is the tapestry that is weaved into luscious and rocky soundscapes and beautiful legends, and it is obvious that the band are just pouring their hearts into this music. Runner up in quality trackwise is our opener "Eden", a perfect introduction to the record and its creators, and the remaining tracks are great - not so special, but delicious all the same. Really, this album is at times breathtaking, and always a good listen. Recommended.

3.5 stars really

Light Damage is from Luxembourg and they have the debut in 2014 self titled. , Well if I summerise the music and all from this release in one word then will be - intresting. From the vocal parts provided by Nicholas John to instrumental passages this is quite an enjoyble liten from start to finish. This is not typical neo prog album heared every day, not because is among the most original releases from today, but because the members trying to bring something diffrent in this genre and most of the time succeded. With influences from almost ghotic zone, in some parts I swear I listen to Lacrimosa, but combined with neo prog sensibility Light damage is definetly a winner for me. Mid tempo most of the time with long pieces, elaborated arrangements and a fantastic voice on top just to be checked opening Eden or the best from here . The Supper of Cyprianus and will be pleased for sure. The guitars and keybords have some great melodic lines and is fiting perfect in overall sound. All in all a good debute even great in places, for me 3.5 stars. For fans of Sylvan or more moody type of neo prog. Strange art work btw., but music is counting after all.

Luxemburg band LIGHT DAMAGE was formed back in 2005, although if I comprehend their French biography, the current version of the band didn't settle until 2013. They initially self-released their debut album towards the end of 2014, a production that was picked up by the German label Progressive Promotion Records shortly after and officially released through it in 2015.

Those who have a general affection for music that people describe as neo progressive rock should find this debut album by Light Damage to be an enjoyable one. The material touches base with many of the well known bands associated with this genre, yet never sounds like replications of any of them, and the band makes sure to add some elements of their own to the proceedings too. The end result is material with a distinctly familiar general sound, yet more diverse, and arguably more sophisticated and adventurous than many other bands of a similar kind. An easy to recommend album to those who find that description to be an intriguing one.

This 2015 album was the debut release from Luxembourg-based neo progressive band Light Damage. That isn't a country I have ever thought of as a hotbed of the scene, but these guys all know what they are doing, having previously performed as a Pink Floyd tribute called Brain Damage before moving onto their own material. They actually started back in 2005 when Seb (drums) and Stephane (guitars) met at a festival, and then started putting the band together soon afterwards. Seb left after the release of their first demo, 'Acronym', and the line-up settled down to Frédérik Hardy (bass, bass pedals, backing vocals), Nicholas-John (lead vocals, guitars, e- bow), Sébastien Pérignon (keyboards, percussion and tubular bells), Stephane Lecocq (lead guitars) and Thibaut Grappin (drums, percussion). They took a year off from gigs to work on new material and re-arranging old songs and self-released this album before it was picked up by PPR.

Musically they have been paying close attention to Guy Manning, and have then taken this with more neo influences to create something which feels very rooted in the Nineties, and to someone like me who was very involved with the scene back then, it is a very welcome sound indeed. It is a very British sound, and they play with a broad palette, and 'Meddle'-era Floyd touches here and there. One of the delights is there are many layers, so there is more to discover with each unpeeling of the onion as the listener gets more inside the music and what the band are trying to achieve. The album tells the story of a person who loses a loved one, while the cover itself is a representation of the story as it is an old piece of fabric which has been torn apart by years and damaged by different manipulations it ugly and belongs in the garbage, or is it beautiful?

Powerful and gripping, this is a superb debut album which any fans of the sub-genre would do well to investigate.