13

With ''O'' Direction eventually made some impact within the prog circles, so the band did want to take advantage of this positive momentum and record a third album as soon as possible.By the end of 2006 they entered Marco Paradis' own studio at Saint-Sacrement and a few monts later ''13'' became the third studio album of the band.Yves Thibault emerges for the first time as the Canadian's sleeve designer.

I really can't understand why the band did not follow the respectable and inspired sound of the sophomore album.With ''13'' the listener will have to face another stylistic turn by Direction, but I am afraid this won't be on the convincing side of things.First and foremost the tracks have become pretty short and simplistic regarding their structures.Then comes the presented sound, which has become extremely guitar-oriented, without any evident keyboard parts in most of the cuts, they now sound like a French-speaking version of RUSH, as the emphasis is on the guitar leads and solos with minor keyboard flashes.There are two multi-parted compositions in here, where the listener somewhat expects the turn of events.''Le chateau'' features a more epic and dramatic atmosphere, sporadically strengthened by the discreet keyboard orchestrations, but then again the Canadians refuse to move away from their love for RUSH.The two-part ''Intoxique'' is a bit more pleasant, the style is again fairly guitar-driven, but this time Direction have chosen to follow some more atmospheric lines with a slight PINK FLOYD/PORCUPINE TREE flavor, which sounds a bit more suitable to the French vocals and the sparse guitar melodies.The rest is generic Heavy/Hard/Neo Prog with good vocals, but the music fails to move away from the mass of average RUSH clones.

Certainly a stepback, after hearing the very good ''O''.RUSH-influenced Heavy/Neo Prog, which does not succeed to blend French poetic voices with harder, guitar-fronted material with comfort.Approach with caution...2.5 stars.