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Album Reviews : Uneven Structure – La Partition

By on April 28, 2017

Sometimes when you’re forced to wait for something you badly want, the finished product gets built up way too much in your mind and ultimately doesn’t measure up, and you wind up a little disappointed.

This is absolutely and utterly NOT one of those times.

Six years down the line from their stunning masterpiece of a debut, the magnificent Februus, these French progressive wizards have finally re-emerged from their cocoon of creativity and given us a follow-up. Was it worth the wait? Well, I would happily have waited sixty years for this thing of beauty and wonder.

La Partition is a work of such depth, such majesty and such musical and conceptual heft it’s difficult to know where to even start in describing its delights. Suffice it is to say that this is one of those works where it is highly recommended that the listener sit, listen and experience it one sitting, letting its aggression and ambience wash over you like the ebbing and flowing tide of some mystical, magical ocean. An ocean that possesses strange healing powers for your mind, body and soul.

Yes, La Partition is more than just an album of great music. It is a spiritual awakening and enlightenment, if you let it into your heart and your soul completely

All that said, the individual songs and moments are plenty more than strong enough to drop in on at any point.

For the pragmatic and uninitiated, Uneven Structure’s sound could be described as dark, conceptual modern progressive metal that juxtaposes howling, aggressive assaults on the senses with wondrous atmospherics that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Much care and attention (indeed, six years’ worth) have been given to the structuring of the songs and their place within the dynamics and the concept of the whole, as well as to the sonic picture painted by the sound and production.

It is also an album that starts extremely strongly, with Alkaline Throat, and just gets even better as it progresses, to the point where the latter third of the album, from Funambule onwards, reaches such spectacular heights it’s impossible to describe and do it justice. It suffices to say that this is where the neck-snapping extremes of the album, the howling aggression and the sweet, sweet ambience, are presented to the listener to best effect. The last three tracks is 21 minutes of pounding, screaming progressive metal symphony and grandeur.

Like its distant predecessor, La Partition is one of the great progressive heavy releases of the modern era. Acquire it today and allow its dark beauty to capture and enrapture you.

Band: Uneven Structure
Album: La Partition
Year: 2017
Genre: Progressive metal
Label: Long Branch Records
Origin: France

About

Rod Whitfield is a Melbourne-based writer and retired musician who has been writing about music since 1995. He has worked for Team Rock, Beat Magazine, themusic.com.au, Heavy Mag, Mixdown, The Metal Forge, Metal Obsession and many others. He has written and published his memoirs of his life and times in the music biz, and also writes books, screenplays, short stories, blogs and more.