MANIGANCE – Recidive

MANIGANCE – Recidive

Difficult review here. French power metal, fifth studio album, and certainly upon early playbacks you can tell these musicians understand how to write captivating and versatile material. The vocalist has a lot of Hammerfall meets Edguy overtones in his inflections and melodies – and musically Manigance play from a standpoint of mostly dual guitar driven riffs with occasional keyboard rhythms in the vein of mid-period Edguy, Mystic Prophecy, Gamma Ray and possibly latter day Tad Morose. Guitarists Francis Merle and Bruno Ramos will give the schooled musicians plenty to dissect in their fluid solo technique throughout these 14 songs, and for a change the drummer doesn’t rely on predictable double bass to mask his skill level.

The problem with the sextet? I think their French language lyrical stance will lead them to a cult following at best – because non-French speakers will have a hard time retaining the words and encoding them into permanent brain space. As a result, 4.5 for the music and talent, 2.5 in terms of overall international appeal.

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