NOVELISTS: C'est La Vie (PROGRESSIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Two years ago, Music Waves had been bewitched by the twilight and melancholy "Noir", a "diamond resplendent in dazzling and troubling light. "A few years before, we had discovered the band with the luminous and icy "Souvenirs" which was already sailing between power, fragility and limpidity. For this new year, the band releases a new dark, sensual and delicate album: "C'est La Vie".

The first bars of 'Somebody Else' are based on a funky rhythm, while the rest of the album offers variations in the modern progressive tradition: complex rhythmics, soft and strange melodies, abundant drums and soft voice. Novelists sails between rage and sweetness, close to Beyond The Dust. 'Deep Blue' has an accessible riff, a soft and moving vocal close to Linkin Park, and the track ends on a stretched note with a brilliant six-string. Even with its heaviness of style, the record is airy like Pink Floyd's, of which he seems to be the spiritual heir. 'Lilly' also conceals a strong emotion, because its introductory arpeggio rocks the senses on a soft and calm wave. In spite of the intense voice, a great softness, obviousness and limpidity emerge from it. Novelists thus plays with paradoxes, combining hot and cold, power and sweetness, melody and dissonances.

'Modern Slave' is built on a progressive architecture with a metalcore flavour, as if after a few passages of relative sweetness, the band found its overflowing energy: square and multiple riffs, powerful drums. In a will to break this sometimes rectilinear highway, the formation intersperses precious moments of aerial calm in its bubbling maelstrom.

Accessibility is the leitmotif of the record - softness counterbalances technique and harshness: on 'C'est La Vie', softness is personified by the female vocals, on 'Deep Blue' the solitary guitar weaves clear phrases, while the bare arpeggios bathe 'Lilly' in warm colours. The production favours emotion, even if it means giving up the rumbling guitars for a while: the vocals on 'Head Rush' flirt with deathcore (Betraying The Martyrs, Thy Art Is Murder). The synthesizers support the intense riffs of 'Kings Of Ignorance' and 'Rain' ventures into the foothills of a vitamin-packed pop worthy of Muse.

"C'est La Vie' is a superb and balanced album with its accessible melodies, technical rhythms and contained rage. Novelists are brimming with emotion, drawing opposites towards a single centre of attraction from which no one can look away. "C'est La Vie" breaks down barriers and explodes styles in the pure tradition of the best of progressive music. - Official website

NOVELISTS

C'EST LA VIE

AUTRE LABEL

PROGRESSIVE METAL