By: Deek

Posted: Dec 9, 2005

This is one of those bands I didn't know much about. I actually originally knew of them from a French friend that I know online. I was given a CD-R copy of their second album, "The Link", that I thought was actually rather good, I just never listened to it a whole lot. But that didn't hurt my opinion when I first heard this album from the French extreme metal titans. Actually, I could have never heard of this band before in my life and it wouldn't have hurt my opinion. Their third full length titled "From Mars To Sirius" is a monster of an album, and it's amazing. This is technical without being overly chaotic or complicated. This is brutal without being overly heavy. This is epic without the gimmicks. This is long but not tiresome. This is an attention getter, hands down. This is top album of the year for me.

Opening with 'Ocean Planet', you sense the feeling that this album will be a throw back to the old days of death metal with the modern flavor. The song is brutal for this type of the style (more of a death-thrash than pure death). "WHY DO THEY CALL ME THERE? HOW CAN I FLY?" singer Joe Duplantier almost agonizingly and frustratingly screams in the climax of the song. That really sets the tone for the album. 'Backbone' is one of the faster paced songs on here, and it's no slouch. 'From The Sky' has a brilliant driving melody to it that just engulfs you. At this point you realize that the drumming is actually the surprise of the album, barely letting up their attack at all. After the nice interlude 'Unicorn' that gives a short breather, the band pours right into the big intro of 'Where Dragons Fall'. Its pace changes many times and suddenly which actually works in the song's favor. 'The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe' opens with a punishing drum line that holds throughout the song. Although the shortest and coincidently weakest (heavy) song on the album, it doesn't hurt the album at all, as it is a great song. 'Flying Whales', probably the most epic song of the bunch, has a great mid-paced, soft intro, that builds nicely into the big, epic core of the song (as you probably noticed, epic is a big thing in this album). That song flows straight to the full intro of 'In The Wilderness', basically the longest song on here at 7:47 and it doesn't skip anywhere. It is also one of the more varied songs on the album. 'World To Come' is the "ballad" of the album and it is a great one at that. It's a rather slow paced song that builds into a fantastic ending. 'From Mars' is a great little two minute track that is a nice, though haunting, break from the brutality. It delves right into the pummeling 'To Sirius' with its unrelenting power. The album closes with 'Global Warming', an epic tale on the future and how the human race is destroying the world and itself. The perfect closing song, and with a bass line at the end of the song that follows the vocal pattern exactly, the end result is just breathtaking.

Some of you reading may be wondering, "well, what are the highlights?" My answer to that is the album is the highlight. This album is one of the best flowing death metal-related albums I've ever heard, even at over an hour long. The band never skips a beat anywhere. Brilliance never sounded so pure. I would love to hear this album live played straight through, I think the energy from the music itself, the band and the crowd all together would make for one amazing experience. One of those rare albums that I consider perfect. One that I will definitely be listening to for years.

"We will see...our children growing..."

Rating: 10/10

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