ALIVE

4.5 stars. This is my kind of live record where they stay fairly faithful to the originals but add some extra energy and passion because of the audience. An interesting release as we get music from two shows three years apart. Different drummer but other than that I can't tell the difference in sound between these two live events and they jumbled the songs up too. Their most recent studio album when this live record was released is "Le Grand Voyage" from 2019 and we get four songs from it all on the most recent show in France in 2019 that's featured on here. The earlier show is from 2016 in The Netherlands on the "Here Comes The Sun" tour which is my favourite album by them. Four tracks from that record as well plus two from 2012's "The Dreamer's Hideaway" and three from 2010's "Black days". Their first two releases had no entries.

The star of the show once again is the vocalist Yann Ligner who adds some extreme vocals to this live release, not a lot but it's a positive for me just adding to the intensity and the way he goes from normal singing to extreme is so cool. The guy is incredibly talented. It was also cool to hear some songs I wasn't familiar with like "Rocket Smoke" from "The Dreamer's Hideaway" and the closer "Army Of Me" a Bjork cover and from "Black Days". "Yonder" the opener is amazing with the thunder to open and how this isn't in my top five just shows how strong this record is. Top five includes two from "Le Grand Voyage" and they are back to back in "Breach" and "Sealed" two gorgeous tracks with plenty of atmosphere and amazing vocals. The other three from my top five are from "Here Comes The Sun" in "The Drifter" a song I can't get enough of along with "Immersion" and "Nebulous" and man so much emotion in thee songs.

My hunch paid off this time when I bought this live cd along with "Le Grand Voyage" and "Here Comes The Sun". A powerful band with atmosphere galore and a singer that is second to none.