Trollheart

Well, we started this off with a look down south across the Pacific and into what used to be called Oceania, now let’s pull back and head back west, coming a little closer to home, at least for me. Delusion Squared are a French trio who came together quite recently (2009) but have already released not one, but two concept albums, the two actually forming part of the same storyline, which in a way makes it a little hard to fully appreciate the second album without hearing the first, but here’s the kicker: in a pretty important way it doesn’t matter, because unlike albums like Queensryche’s “Operation mindcrime” or Genesis’ “The lamb lies down on Broadway”, or even Rush’s “2112”, knowledge of the plot is not necessarily vital to enable you to enjoy this album.

Female-fronted bands don’t seem to be all that prevalent in prog rock --- prog metal yes, but often these bands tend to verge more on the side of gothic or even power metal, the likes of Nightwish, Within Temptation, Epica --- all great bands but not really what you could call true progressive rock. Delusion Squared stay away from the whole loud, operatic, bombastic over the top style that many of these bands espouse and go for a more classic approach, and not only that, but they’re all multi-instrumentalists, as you can see below. Over the next few posts I’m going to be dedicating my time to showing you prog bands who are fronted by ladies, and Delusion Squared are as good a place to start as any.


Album title: II
Artiste: Delusion Squared
Year: 2012
Nationality: French
Discography: Delusion Squared (2010), II (2012)
Lineup:
Lorraine Young (Vocals, Lead Guitar)
Steven Francis: (Guitars, Keyboards, Drums)
Emmanuel de Saint Meen (Bass, Keyboards)

Tracklisting:
1. Double Visions
2. Necrogenesis
3. Faith Mission
4. Recipe for Disaster
5. Verdical Paradox
6. Revelation
7. Abduction
8. Naked Solipsism
9. Unexpected Messiah

The contrast between tracks one and two could not be more marked, with the opener a gentle, almost acoustic piece, very laidback and then “Necrogenesis” kicks in with a hard, almost prog metal feel, though retaining its prog rock roots. For those who simply must know the storyline or they can’t enjoy the album, here it is condensed. In a dystopian (of course) future, everything is copyrighted, including human genes, so when a woman has a baby strictly against government laws, she is accused of copyright theft and exiled from the city. Outside she wanders in the post-apocalyptic (we assume) wilderness until she meets others like her, eventually becoming their saviour and spiritual leader. Or something.

As I said, the story is not that important, but the vocals and fretwork of Lorraine Young are. She puts me in mind a little of Leslie Hunt from District 97, whose album I reviewed in my journal and who was the subject of one of our little “Prog Rock Album Club” picks a while back. Very Hackettesque twelve-string (is it?) opens “Faith mission” with some really sumptuous keyboard backing it and Lorraine’s voice rises above the music like a soul ascending to Heaven. She has a soft edge (if such a thing can exist!) to her voice that many of the more well-known prog rock female vocalists don’t, and in style she reminds me of Hazel from Lanterns on the Lake.

Some transcendent piano on “Verdical paradox” (yeah, it’s spelled that way. Go figure.) though I can’t tell you who is playing it as we have two keyboard players in the trio. Soft, lush vocals from Lorraine again as she pours her heart and soul out, with some lovely backing vocals too. “Revelation” kicks it all back up into almost metal territory with some frankly superb bass lines from de Saint Meen, then it’s almost acoustic/folk for “Abduction”, where the two guitarists show what they can really do. Quite how Delusion Squared expect to carry this off live though is beyond me, as the two guys each play the rhythm section, in addition to one playing guitar and both playing keys! Maybe some session musicians would have to be drafted in. The oddly-named “Naked solipsism” returns us to a soft acoustic guitar sound with more effective vocal harmonies, but I’m rather surprised to find that I’m sort of losing interest now.

When I first heard this album I was impressed, though not blown away. It might have been the, at the time, novelty of a female vocalist, because up to then I hadn’t heard Touchstone or any of the other female-fronted prog acts, and it sounded different. Now that I listen to it it’s still a good album, but I’m finding it hard to maintain my interest in it and it’s not blowing my skirt up. Maybe I just remembered it differently and expected more. Maybe you’ll get more out of it than I could. But it’s not to be fair an album I can see myself coming back to any time soon.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018