MERLIN

Full of beauty and grandeur, HaALLOWEEN's 1994 concept album is a modern day classic epic recording which I plan to take to the 'ol desert island. Fans of ANGE will go crazy for "Merlin" which carries strong "ANGE'isms". What does it totally for me on this album is not only the superb musicianship and song writing, but extreme use of instrumentation which is full and rich sounding. While the classic instruments like guitar, bass , drums and mellotron take up much space, we are given lots of other accents including loads of violins (incl E-Bow), contrebass, flute trombone, trumpet and tuba.

This gives the album a strong symphonic and theatrical feel throughout. Lead vocals (sung in French) are contrasted with the delicate female vocals of Geraldine Le Cocq and the male vocals of Jean Philippe Brun and Gilles Coppin. Merlin is full of major mood and tempo swings and moves from tranquil passages to heavy guitar pounding moments. I can not say enough about this album except for that it is truely essential.