Halloween - Part One (1988)

Review originally published in ProgArchives on 2. November 2010

The French symphonic prog scene is not like any other symphonic prog scene. This is why I regard this scene as one entity, far remote from any other scene.

The most important difference between this scene and the scene in England & anywhere else is the French scene's operatic, melodramatic type of symphonic prog. Ange is the most typical example of this scene and the forerunners of this scene. Halloween is not far behind on this, their debut album though.
The music on this album is concept based melodramatic music with long guitar solos, some both spoken and somehow melodic sung vocals, violin and tonnes of keyboards. It feels like this is scene or film music to an extent. The music is pretty dark and so is the vibe here.

The quality of the music is good throughout. But this album is never breaking sweat and it never takes of into greatness. The sung vocals are pretty sub standard, but the rest of the band is OK. This is a concept album which does not click into gear. But it is a good album nevertheless.

3 points