LES MORTS VONT VITE

My first listen of this album was actually in very early days of discovering the style and genre of Zeuhl and the more Avant-Garde corners of the progressive world. I was overwhelmed, and just couldn't get into it. Having explored a bit more and developed a taste (as I did with Magma's MDK) I've come back a couple of years later to re-review.

This time though, I'm still struggling. RIO meets Zeuhl, a mix in styles of the most dystopian Magma and chamber rock. Dark and lurching, without the choral element of Magma, but a loosely operatic solo vocalist in Ann Stewart. It's so brooding that it makes Univers Zero seem like bubblegum pop. Absolutely monstrous, I can appreciate the brilliance, but it still pushes my personal boundaries a little too far. The deep fuzzy bass is certainly excellent, and Stewart does a great job of setting the tone of the album, but its often a little too jarring, or a little too slow for me.

Incipit Tragaedia, the first track on the album, is perhaps the one that is most accessible to my ears, with the best examples of all the above without being too extreme.

Maybe I'll come back again in a couple of years!