SYMPTOME - DEI

This one album by French group Flamen Dialis is a crossover between progressive electronic and symphonic prog with almost an ancient Egyptian twist. The symphonic prog element is mainly because of the prominent use of mellotron throughout the album but there is also 12- string guitar, flute, and bass.

Symptome-Dei is a very dark and dirty sounding album, never reaching into the slightest bit of happiness. The music here sounds entirely like a soundtrack for the festival of a Pharaoh because of the Egyptian sounding melodies.

Unfortunately, Symptome-Dei never really gets very interesting because the first three tracks pretty much show everything that this group is capable of, and tracks like "Labyrinth Pourpre De La Connai" simply sound goofy and clownish rather than experimental or entertaining. The synths used on this album sound extremely dated, which is most apparent on "La Village Du Diamanche Matin" which is basically a very silly sounding synth solo that sounds like an attempt at an imperial theme played on a cheap children's Casio keyboard. "Eclats" is a bass-led track that uses random avant string and piano playing that really leads to nowhere and serves no purpose except to add length to the album.

It's sad that Flamen Dialis only recorded this one album, because even though this Symptome-Dei is somewhat disappointing, they show great potential and interesting ideas that could be fleshed out more appropriately on subsequent albums if given the chance. But, as it stands, this album would most likely appeal to fans of Bobby BeauSoleil's Lucifer Rising soundtrack for the similar symphonic prog-meets-prog electronic instrumentation. I've never been a huge fan of mellotron, but I'm sure fans of the instrument will be satisfied with this album as long as they don't mind what is possibly the most dated synth sound recorded.