WITHERED FLOWERS AND CINNAMON

ENNEADE is a progressive metal band from Lyon formed in 1995. Three demos then the "Remembrance" came out, containing a compendium of what was best at the time, fusion before the hour of bass, drums and heavy riffs, all sprinkled with parsimonious acoustics with dark intensity; I described them as a compendium of 80's KING CRIMSON, GENESIS and RIVERSIDE, more than OPETH and ANATHEMA, in short complex progressive metal, original neo melodic. Well, what about this baby coming out of a difficult gestation?

"A Foul Taste of Freedom", heavy attack, reverberating bass, phrasing vocals, acoustic base, a sumptuous and intimate break; it's heavy, nervous, can we do that in France? Yes !!!! A bit of the heavy, cantankerous, grumpy going RIVERSIDE; the hard riff finishes me off; medieval break for a time before setting off again on an invading, superb melodic rhythm. Acoustic "Illumination" in intro starting on a hellish rhythm, it's heavy a bit of SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE, the sound that shows the importance of the work, the 11 years of waiting have been put to good use; a little ANATHEMA and RIVERSIDE for the guitar which oozes, which languishes and it starts again, clean, it looks like a very good English group with the worked voice of Christian who does not suffer from an accent, it's well done and "Tinkling Forks" continues on a marimba then the Chapman bass à la KING CRIMSON; aside eyeing the Japanese and Genesis atmosphere all of a sudden with this spleen guitar from another world, stunning, simple but effective.

"Grand Buffet" always chained tumbles and launches into a rhythmic fusion, a sort of medieval, folkloric and Crimsonian tribal dance; confusing short title which questions the purpose of the music in its general sense, a car leaves and "Autumn" for the river title, 12 minutes of pure happiness: we regress on the Moog of yesteryear, a hovering side of the late SCHULZE in the preamble also makes a sign; the acoustics and the pads of Frédéric make the taf bringing the air on a dark bucolic ballad, always this divine mixture of zests of GENESIS and KING CRIMSON; the guitars of Christophe and Georges-Marc accentuate the mischievously melancholic atmosphere. The Crimsonian break goes from dark to rustic, challenges just like this jet of sax from Olivier recalling the progressive wanderings of the SUPERTRAMP, quickly assisted by the Genesis keyboard, in short the musical fusion brought to its paroxysm, between jovial depression and crystalline notes.

ENNEADE seduced me, directly, without detour! I don't need details on their delivery to tell you that it's a must, that it's simply my album of the month. A compendium of metal reminiscences, free jazz metal by keys, melodic prog metal, a singular sound that makes you think about these sounds mixed together in the progressive crucible and emerging in a new musical alloy of the 2020s. makes haste to put it back on track, again and... again.