CONTES DES SOUS-BOIS

This is a bizarre one, found it in a Budapest prog store, sort of expecting a Mona Lisa/Ange kind of album with assorted medieval influences. Guillaume is the leader of French prog group Versailles (a very uneven discography to say the least) and yet was quite stunning on the 1998 Mona Lisa album "De L'Ombre à la Lumière". His guitar playing was spirited and sweaty especially on the epic "Voyage avec les Morts", really catching my attention. "Contes des Sous-Bois" certainly possesses a raucous Middle Ages feel, what with that wistful cover art of a milady piercing a tree with a halberd (look it up , guys) . The music is pleasing, spooky and grating at the same time, mainly due to the typical hysterics that make French prog so universally admired and yet feared. The opening dozen minute long "Le Mystique Eremetique" is a case in point, with interesting instrumental choices that are confronted with some rather, let's say odd vocals. Nowhere does the singing get weirder than on the third track "Sacrifice Sacré Vice" (Sacrifice Sacred Vice, as if you couldn't guess!). Freddie Mercury meets David Surkamp of Pavlov's Dog, I mean it's funny. Another 11.5 minute closer, "Mistigricide" is another gruesome piece, with dense organs, frenzied vampiric vocals, ideal Halloween music in so many ways, serenading the local bats into screeching overhead. The fabulous guitar solo is scratchy, the bass rumbles nimbly, actually pretty intense, imagine for a second a French proggy Bauhaus (though Peter Murphy was a way more intriguing talent). An obvious curiosity that could have been more effective with a bit more polish but .....maybe not ! File under "oddity "

3.5 chauve-souris