CD  ‘FTF Music’  48:51 mins

SOLACE TORMENT – Home (weebly.com)

Solace Supplice | Facebook

Liturgies Contemporaines | Solace Supplice (bandcamp.com)

Rating 90/100

If you can imagine a band with the drive and verve of ‘Tangent’, the exhilaration of ‘punk’ mixed with the artistry and panache of ‘Major Parkinson’ then you have before you the elegance and dynamism of French band ‘Solace Supplice’. They are indeed a band noteworthy of attention and who have taken the essence of progressive rock music to new levels of sophistication and excitement. The album comprises a wild paced assortment of intensely powerful songs that are mostly delivered with robust intensity and whose potency hits you fully square on with the impact of a huge steamroller. However, such power is cleverly counterbalanced with the almost ‘deadpan’ French language vocal delivery of ‘ Eric Bouillette’  . A vocal delivery that totally suits the framework of the instrumental progressions and in turn adds much panache to the proceedings. Some additional and quite beautiful female vocal incursions, courtesy of ‘Anne-Claire Rallo’, are integrated into the mix to great effect. Whilst the majority of the male lead vocals follow the same straight ‘matter of fact’ stylisation there are instances where the full quality of the male voice expands out from the set rigid pathway to nice harmonious effect

From an instrumental perspective the impact of the music is most definitely driven forth from an  engine room of extraordinary powerful drumming and intensely riveting bass lines. Such is this dynamic percussive platform that it subsequently allows some really sharp lead guitar to float freely over and above this driving forceful percussive background. There are then many  piano / keyboard saxophone contributions to savour in the shape of energetic fills and  melodic enhancements that altogether provide interesting and colourfal focal points. And to crown it all there are clips of old and historical BBC recordings together with  electrical disturbances that are integrated into the mix which provide additional  focal points  of interest especially in contrast to the French language  vocals.

Summary: A totally enjoyable album full of gusto and exhilarating instrumental dynamics with interesting French language vocals..

Tracklisting

1. Le tartuffe exemplaire
2. Sunset Street
3. A demi-maux
4. Les miradors
5. Cosmos adultérin
6. Schizophrénie paranoïde
7. Au cirque des âmes
8. En guidant les hussards
9. Liturgies contemporaines
10. Dans la couche du diable
11. Marasmes et décadence

Total Playtime: 48’51

Line-Up

Eric Bouillette : Vocals, backing vocals, guitar, keyboards, violin, arrangements, composition

Anne-Claire Rallo : Keyboards and bass:

Drums Willow Beggs : Bass

Laurent Benhamou : Saxophone

 

From their website:-Solace Supplice  is a French rock band formed by Eric Bouillette and Anne-Claire Rallo, two members of the progressive rock band Nine Skies based in England, this project launched in 2020 saw its first EP released on July 10 on the same year. On April 15, 2022 Solace Supplice announces the album “Liturgies Contemporaines”, an 11-track digipack via the label ”FTF Music”.