Detailed Reviews [Rest In Peace - 2003 - "Evilution"]

Prolusion. "Evilution" is the third album by the French band Rest In Peace. Their previous albums: "Disillusions" and "Stares on Reality" were released in 1999 and 2001 respectively.

Synopsis. With the exception of the song: The Child & the Dolphin (2), which is somewhat of a potential hit and is about a melodic Hard & Heavy, all of the other tracks on "Evilution" are definitely progressive and are quite diverse in stylistics. The album's opening track: Future Primitive is one of the two instrumental pieces here. It features excellent interplay between the fluid solos of electric guitar, pulsating solos of bass, and lush passages of synthesizer and piano. There also are three songs on the album that were performed without drums: Life Before the Storm, Justice of Men, and Final Hope (8, 10, & 13). These are based on diverse and very inventive interplay between passages of piano and a string ensemble and solos of semi-acoustic guitar, so the music here, as well as that on the aforementioned Future Primitive, represents a soft and very beautiful Symphonic Art-Rock. Another instrumental composition is Blood Tears (11). Performed by Cyrille Galle on Grand Piano, this is nothing else but a piece of Classical Music. Galle is certainly one of the main masterminds behind the band, and his varied keyboards (synthesizers, Grand Piano, organ, and the ARP-like string ensemble) play a very important role in generating the progressiveness of this album. The pronounced keyboard-related (mostly symphonic, of course) textures are the essential constituents of this music, and the diverse and highly virtuosi solos of Grand Piano and synthesizer flow non-stop throughout almost all of the songs here and regardless of whether there are vocals at the moment or not. A very original blend of Prog-Metal and Symphonic Art-Rock with either elements or bits of music of the East is what almost all of the other songs on the album are about: Another Rebirth, Wudukind, The Funeral, Diary of a Merchant Man, Heroes of Antarctica, and The Hunting (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, & 9). Each of the first three of them contains the solid number of Eastern tunes, and the fourth one is just filled with them. Finally, Prog-Metal with the pronounced elements of Jazz-Fusion, amazingly provided by Galle on Grand Piano, is presented on Urban Bluesy Night (12). All of the band members are truly experienced musicians capable working free and easy with varied essential progressive features, and Eric Bevilacqua, is a chameleon and is simply a fantastic singer and by all means (including his pronunciation of English).

Conclusion. Along with > "The Wings" by Azazello Tourniquet's > "Where Moth & Rust Destroy", and > "Primal Power Addiction" by Heaven's Cry, "Evilution" is one of the best Prog-Metal-related albums that I've heard this year. Only those into a sugary Neo Prog-Metal should avoid this.

VM: May 27, 2003