Oniric Metal arrived yesterday! After four listens I am ready to give you my review, so here it is. (Also posted on the RVP drums message boards)
Vivien Lalu is as far as I can tell is a rather debonair and long haired French keyboardist who has assembled a rather killer lineup for his debut solo album under the name Lalu - Oniric Metal. First of all, go place your order for this album right now and then read the rest of this because quite simply, its awesome.
The first thing that's noticeable is the production of the album. It is absolutely immense! The guitars are like a wall, the drums are perfectly aggressive and pounding and the keyboards are prominent, as you would expect with Lalu himself fronting that instrument. The second thing that's noticeable as you potter on through the cd is that yes, these songs are killer!
Yesterdayman is the song that convinced me to buy this album after I downloaded it from the website and to put it simply, its the perfect opener for the album. A crunching intro followed by a more soft part which introduces vocalist Martin LeMar who has an excellent fitting voice for the music on this album. Some cool soloing and a powerful chorus, with some great keyboard undertones makes this one a winner right off the bat. Wolven Eyes follows in much the same vein with the heavy with soft parts progressive style approach. Lalu can really write songs!
The first ballad is Windy and apart from some rather dodgy lyrics its a good soft song, serving as a welcome interlude between the heavy songs Wolven eyes and the upcoming Night in Poenari. Track 4, Night in Poenari is one of Ryan's favourites and its easy to see why. Lalu credits Symphony X in the liner notes for the influence and this song is where its most prevalent. Crunching power metal-esque riffery with some killer choirs and aggressive singing by LeMar.
The hits keep on rollin with Moonstruck and Timestop, the latter being the first prog style epic song (10 minutes or so) on the album, and it manages to maintain interest throughout with a slightly more progressive and less heavy approach throughout. Watch for the great solo around the 4 minute mark.
The album is concluded with an 18 minute epic 'Potboy: The Final fantasy' incidentally named after the greatest video game series of all time
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
You know, long have I asked for a band to write a song about Pot smoking aliens whose spaceship runs on weed crash landing on earth and being hunted by the FBI. Now finally my wish has been answered! In all seriousness this is a great great song and I'm a sucker for epics. It definitely reminds me of top tier prog metal acts like Dream Theater, Symphony X and Fates Warning mixed with the heavy edge of Devin Townsend. Perfect way to end the album and round off an awe inspiring debut from Lalu.
I give it 4.5/5, solely because to be a 5 it has to be absolutely perfect. But the flaws are minor; only including Martin LeMar's bizarre fascination with someone named Windy (my theory on this would definitely be that 'Windy' is his nickname for Ryan and he is professing his undying love for ole RVP). Speaking of RVP this album is worth the money for his drumming alone. Absolutely flawless display from Ryan and all the instrumentalists involved. If you havent already, go out and buy it now you peons!!
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