AU-DELÀ DU DÉLIRE

Au-delà du Délire is French symphonic prog rock band Ange´s third album and what an album. Their last album Le Cimetière des Arlequins swept my feet away and this one continues to do so. Now my french isn´t very advanced, so I must say that the meaning of the lyrics elude me most of the time which is a real shame of course, as I´m sure Ange tells some great stories. That extra dimension could have meant that I treasured this album even more, but don´t worry you can easily listen to Au-delà du Délire without knowing any french as this is beautiful atmospheric music.

The music is very influenced by Genesis and a bit by the mellotron sweeps from early King Crimson. So if you´re having a bad time with Genesis imitators don´t go for this album. Of course the french lyrics and general approach to the music gives this some originality but many of the musical ideas have been used by Genesis before. I don´t mind when it´s done like it´s done here though. The music is of so high quality, that you can´t deny the beauty of the songs. Christian Decamps vocal style will always be an aquired taste as it is very theatrical and it resembles storytelling at times which is best heard in songs like Si j'étais le Messie and La bataille du Sucre. He is a great diverse singer with many great ideas though.

The music is pretty dark and even heavy at times. After listening to the two first songs Godevin le Vilain and Les longues nuits d'Isaac I thought that this was gonna be a very sombre album, but it´s like things loosen up a bit with the third and the fourth track Si j'étais le Messie and the beautiful acoustic Balade pour une Orgie.

The music alternates between heavier darker parts and acoustic beautiful ones on most songs and it´s the same trick as most other symphonic rock bands used at the time but here it´s done with style. Everything seems to fit together.

The musicianship is great. The arrangement of the songs does not leave much room for soloing but there are a couple of good guitar solos in songs like Exode and in the epic title track. The vintage keyboard sounds dominate the soundscape most of the time and if you´re a fan of vintage synth and keyboards you´ll love this album. The drums and the bass are very tight and keeps the music on track.

The production is very good. It´s definitely a step forward from Le Cimetière des Arlequins which had a very rough sound. The sound is more polished on Au-delà du Délire.

My conclusion is that Au-delà du Délire is an excellent symphonic prog rock album. It´s close to being essential but lacks originality. I´ll rate it 4 stars and recommend it to everyone into early seventies symphonic prog rock and especially to those of you who likes the moods created by Genesis. If you can get over the french language obstical and get used to Christian Decamps theatrical approach I´m sure you´ll enjoy this album as much as me.