Band:
Didier Delsaux - Vocals
François Merle - Guitars
Bruno Ramos - Guitars
Marc Duffau - Bass
Daniel Pouylau - Drums
Diskography:
Signe De Vie EP (1997)
Ange Ou Démon (2002)
D'un Autre Sang (2004)
Mémoires... Live (2004)
L'ombre Et La Lumière (2006)
Info
Produced and mixed by Manigance
Released 31/1-2011
Reviewed 30/3-2011
Links:
myspace
xiii bis records
Manigance seem to be a group of tricksters with a ploy to make their power metal music between their wine drinking and snail eating (note how I for fun write a preconception thing about french people here). Their music is melodic, very clean in the sound and partly quite the archetype of power metal but with some subtle differences, the high pitched vocals are not really in the falsetto range, the melodies have a certain quality of uniqueness while still being within the confines of the genre. The production is clean and somewhat polished without taking out the finer sandpaper.
The cover artwork of the band also look very power metal so there is really no doubting that they belong there with there catchy choruses and melodic hooks. Récidive have fifteen tracks and is just over an hour long, which is a bit in the long run for me who thinks forty minutes is more or less the limit. It starts with an intro before the band starts making tears from the universe, which is an impressive feat. It is also an impressive song with good tempo and energy, also with a good chorus which makes it quite good for being the first track. Actually it is one of the best tracks on the album and it sets a good tone for what is to come from the rest of the album.
Besides the first track I find there is three more tracks to mention and I have translated their titles for your benefit: Mercenary, Secret of the Soul and Illusion are these tracks. Not like the other tracks on the album are bad or anything but this tracks stand out a little as slightly better, along with the opening Larme de l'univers.
I can also report that the use of vocals in french rather than the much more widespread musical language english is no problem whatsoever. Heavy metal in french definitely works and it works quite well as well. I think that if there was every a ploy to instigate the use of french as main musical language, Manigance would be one of the bands in the frontline with their powerful and really good power metal music.
There are some problems with the album though, not all is good and fantastic. The first problem is the length, the album is as I have stated earlier over one hour long which just gets too long towards the end, the fact that the songs are very good does lessen this slightly but the problem is still there. Maybe they should have looked to cut it down some tracks which they could save for later, I guess the four years between albums made the band have too much material to put on the album and as most they were unable to throw enough away. I still think they should have noticed that they had fifteen tracks all with a playing time of around four minutes, that would put off some warning bells, wouldn’t it?
Still, when summarising it is a really good album and a guess the band’s ploy worked out really well with it as I really like what I hear and what a funny and very interesting and excellent thing to use the french language for metal music, it is not only a language for those speaking wine it is also a great musical language. I also think that anyone who enjoys power metal will really like this and if you ditch it for the language, then you are stupid. Manigance is a good band and a name to remember for the next time you are to buy a new record.
I like this album, it is good.
