Gerald Massois to Symphonic

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   I listened to both albums and gave both 5 stars

Bandcamp link: https://geraldmassois.bandcamp.com/
Band website link: https://www.geraldmassois.com/

Artist/band biography (usually found on their web site)

GERALD MASSOIS is a french multi-talented musician, composer and arranger specializing in symphonic progressive rock. Drawing inspiration from a variety of musical styles (Ange, Peter Gabriel, Dream Theater, Ennio Morricone...), he released in 2018 his debut album ‘Le vol erratique d’un papillon’ based on Bataclan attacks. Available exclusively in digital version (bandcamp, Artist’s website, streaming platforms), this self-produced opus was written as a first piece of a musical trilogy. At this point, GERALD MASSOIS performed all instruments except of drums played by his long term bandmate, Maxx GILLARD. To celebrate this album, a band is set-up to play at Prog’Sud festival in May 2019, including JONATHAN TAVAN on bass and his co-producer NICOLAS GARDEL on keyboards.

In 2019, GERALD MASSOIS started writing new material for his second album. Delayed by the pandemic, this album called ‘Demain à l’aube’ was released on 12/01/2024 on digital and Digipack and will be available on 01/02/2025 on streaming platforms/Bandcamp. His music combines complex arrangements, orchestral influences and a mix of acoustic and electric instrumentation to create evocative and concept-driven compositions. Some guests are invited for this album including GIONATAN CARRADONA from PROFUSION. As for the first album, NICOLAS GARDEL engineered, mixed and mastered the album.

The third part of the trilogy is already written…

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mbzr48 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Discography Auditor Joined: February 11 2011 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 2158	Post Options Post Reply Quote mbzr48 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Gerald Massois to Symphonic Posted: January 30 2025 at 13:13
	I listened to both albums and gave both 5 stars Bandcamp link: https://geraldmassois.bandcamp.com/ Band website link: https://www.geraldmassois.com/ Artist/band biography (usually found on their web site) GERALD MASSOIS is a french multi-talented musician, composer and arranger specializing in symphonic progressive rock. Drawing inspiration from a variety of musical styles (Ange, Peter Gabriel, Dream Theater, Ennio Morricone...), he released in 2018 his debut album ‘Le vol erratique d’un papillon’ based on Bataclan attacks. Available exclusively in digital version (bandcamp, Artist’s website, streaming platforms), this self-produced opus was written as a first piece of a musical trilogy. At this point, GERALD MASSOIS performed all instruments except of drums played by his long term bandmate, Maxx GILLARD. To celebrate this album, a band is set-up to play at Prog’Sud festival in May 2019, including JONATHAN TAVAN on bass and his co-producer NICOLAS GARDEL on keyboards. In 2019, GERALD MASSOIS started writing new material for his second album. Delayed by the pandemic, this album called ‘Demain à l’aube’ was released on 12/01/2024 on digital and Digipack and will be available on 01/02/2025 on streaming platforms/Bandcamp. His music combines complex arrangements, orchestral influences and a mix of acoustic and electric instrumentation to create evocative and concept-driven compositions. Some guests are invited for this album including GIONATAN CARRADONA from PROFUSION. As for the first album, NICOLAS GARDEL engineered, mixed and mastered the album. The third part of the trilogy is already written…

yam yam Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Crossover Team Joined: June 16 2011 Location: Kerberos Status: Offline Points: 7045	Post Options Post Reply Quote yam yam Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: January 30 2025 at 13:51
	^ He is already being evaluated by the Symphonic Prog Team. A suggestion was posted in their team thread earlier this afternoon by one of our SCs, after Gerald was recommended to him by a friend. I've had a quick listen to the first few tracks of the new 'Demain à l'aube' album, and thought that Neo Prog would be perhaps more appropriate than Symphonic, but that's just my opinion, and there's still lot of his music that I haven't listened to. He's a dead cert for one or other of the two subs though. Superb stuff! https://awesomeprog.com/artists/16493. Edit: Gerald is a member here. He joined in the summer of 2018 and posted an introduction to himself and his debut album 'Le vol erratique d'un papillon' in Welcome artists: https://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=114895. He hasn't logged in again since November of that year though. Edited by yam yam - January 30 2025 at 14:00

rdtprog Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Heavy, RPI, Symph, JR/F Canterbury Teams Joined: April 04 2009 Location: Mtl, QC Status: Offline Points: 5389	Post Options Post Reply Quote rdtprog Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: January 30 2025 at 14:38
	I listened to those albums and not sure if it's symphonic, neo or metal? But good stuff! It's prog for sure. I will listen to more...
	Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness. Emile M. Cioran

yam yam Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Crossover Team Joined: June 16 2011 Location: Kerberos Status: Offline Points: 7045	Post Options Post Reply Quote yam yam Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: January 30 2025 at 19:29
	I've now listened to both albums right the way through, and I still think that Neo Prog would be the most suitable sub to file this artist in overall. The music could probably be described as a blend of Neo and Heavy Prog with some symphonic textures and hints of metal thrown in as well at regular intervals. The symphonic textures are more akin to those of the Symphonic Metal sub genre rather than Symphonic Prog to my ears though, and I don't think the hints of metal are sufficiently pronounced in any of the tracks to be able to consider them as being true Prog Metal tracks. He reminds me in some ways of another French Heavy/Neo Prog band named Whitechapel, who released an album called 'Le Masque d'arlequin' back in 2012. I think Gerald's music is somewhat more refined and structured than that of Whitechapel though. The sound of some of the guitar runs on both of Gerald's albums, backed by the prominent synths, really do suggest Neo Prog as a starting point to me for this music. Whichever sub Gerald eventually ends up in, these are two damn fine albums indeed, and I can't for the life of me understand why the 2018 album has only three supporters on Bandcamp. The Wayback Machine has only saved that page once - in November 2023 - but even if it was five years after its release before he put the album up on that platform, you'd have thought that music of this quality would have received more votes of support than three in the fifteen months or more that it's been available there. Props to the guy for carrying on with his project after such a lacklustre response to his first offering - a good many folks would have just given it up as a bad job. He obviously believes in what he has to offer, and justifiably so too. I'm certainly going to be keeping my eyes and ears open for part three of the trilogy, I just hope it isn't another seven years before it sees the light of day, since I might not be around any more by then lol! Let's hope we can get him a page on here tout de suite, so that more people have a chance to get to discover his music. There have at least been significantly more reviews of the second album than there were of the first, so it does look as though things might be beginning to look up for him at last. If I'd known about 'Le vol erratique d'un papillon' back in 2018 it would easily have made my top 20 albums of that year - and that's without being able to follow the story, due to not being able to understand the French lyrics. Steve Lazenby (Lazland) played 'La Bataille de l'Ebre' (parts 1 & 2) to open his eighth radio show on Progzilla.com at the start of the last week of November. I should really have checked to see if this guy was on the site back then, but I didn't. Although Gerald played all the instruments except the drums during the actual recording of his debut album, he performed a selection of music from it with a live band at Prog Sud 2019, held at Le Jas Rod in Les Pennes-Mirabeau, France on May 31, 2019: Just 438 views, 18 'likes', and not a single comment in more than five and a half years. That's a real shame imho.

mbzr48 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Senior Member Discography Auditor Joined: February 11 2011 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 2158	Post Options Post Reply Quote mbzr48 Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: February 10 2025 at 21:04
	Neo instead of Symphonic is fine! as long as he is added into PA family!

yam yam Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Special Collaborator Crossover Team Joined: June 16 2011 Location: Kerberos Status: Offline Points: 7045	Post Options Post Reply Quote yam yam Report Post Thanks(1) Quote Reply Posted: February 10 2025 at 21:26
	Well, he's under evaluation in Eclectic at the moment, with one 'yes' vote so far...so yeah, it doesn't really matter where he ends up as long as he gets his page on here somewhere!

Gerald Massois Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Reviewer page Forum Newbie Joined: February 11 2025 Location: France Status: Offline Points: 2	Post Options Post Reply Quote Gerald Massois Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: February 11 2025 at 13:39
	Thank you everyone for the attention you paid to my music ! I created this new profile here as I lost the password of my old profile, and forgot to enter an email address in it :) Enjoy life
	Gerald Massois https://www.geraldmassois.com/ https://geraldmassois.bandcamp.com/