The Red Masque is an American quartet whose musical propensity is as a very dark progressive rock, as somber and disturbing as the Zeuhl of Magma was a quarter century ago.

"Feathers For Flesh" is only their second album and already the band asserts itself as a certain value - that well the subject is mastered. Each musician showcases a high technical precision in a very tortured music that often reminisces the most serious creations of King Crimson. The vocals are handled by Lynette Shelley, an impressive vocalist who passes from the most sensual warm voice to the most frightening cries with the same enthusiasm. The third title "Yellow are his opening eyes" gives the measure of the vocal expression of Lynette, who starts her phrasing in a Morissonian style, only to finish with screams a la Nina Hagen. Musically, this title is also the most powerful of the album, with its heavy bass lines and the moanings of the guitar of Fripp, oh! sorry, I wanted to say of Kiarash Amani.

"Beggars & Thieves", the fourth title, is perhaps the easiest to apprehend. Based entirely on a duet of acoustic guitars, it sounds like a song coming straight from the Celtic folklore, with only some vocal and musical drifts to drive it towards a Gothic ambiance. The Magmian dimension of The Red Masque is located in certain vocal experiments and instrumental madness scattered all around this disc, exploding on "Scarlet experiment", which cannot get any more experimental than it already is. I am not at all a fan of this type of music, too unstructured for my taste, but I have to admit that certain passages of this album have pleasantly impressed me. Moreover, this opus brims with a power of expression that forces admiration. I can easily understand how an informed public could be conquered by the world of The Red Masque.

It's the first time that I give such a good grade to a disc that I don't completely appreciate!!!

Progressive Waves