After the magnificent 'Second Flight: Live At The Z7' released in 2015 (see here), 'Flying Colors' which is a formation composed of renowned artists of the progressive rock scene or metal, released a new album 'Third Degree'. With all these talents, they offer us a little over an hour of very varied compositions but nonetheless accessible and, therefore, we must be open to all the styles of our five protagonists who each have their own musical journey that goes from pop to metal to rock and jazz.
For my part, it's certainly what makes this new baby's strength: 'The Loss Inside' opens the ball in a style between rock and hard-rock, quite close to 'Deep Purple' and although that the composition is fairly classic, we are caught by this energetic title without any dead time where each artist brings his stone to the building. Follows 'More' which continues in an energetic but more modern style and which brings a progressive component with its remarkable central instrumental break and then, with 'Cadence', we change of register for a 'Kansas' atmosphere between pop and rock and 'Guardian' proposes us a style marrying melodic rock with progressive : first, the melody of the refrain remains anchored a long time in our head and then, the central part consists of two breaks, the first very 'Floydian' and the second more 'Purpulian'. As for 'Last Train Home', it embarks us for a progressive and epic saga filled with several parts without any weariness, the 10 minutes passing very quickly (we would ask for a little more) and the only regret is this fade out on the final because this remarkable title would have deserved a real final. The sequel will reveal other surprises with, first of all, 'Geronimo' which brings us a few decades back with a style between rock and funk and which could become the 'Permanating' (see the last album of 'Steven Wilson' here) of 'Flying Colors', then with 'You Are Not Alone', it's a surprising but beautiful ballad that could be a mix between 'Elton John' and 'Leonard' Cohen', and finally, 'Love Letter' uses even more time machine because we find ourselves in a pop atmosphere happy and flourished at the time of the 'Beatles'. And to finish in style, 'Crawl' embarks us one last time in a long progressive and symphonic development filled with emotion with an exceptional performance of 'Casey McPherson' and remarkable instrumental sections , each artist integrating perfectly with the ensemble for a perfect alchemy, the final giving to me goose bumps several times.
In short, this new album of 'Flying Colors' is a total success and confirms that these five artists gathered are not only an addition of talents but form a super-group at the top of his art and' Third Degree is an album that will remain for me in the top 5 albums of 2019... | |
