REVIEW - SED LEX
Review By: Nicky Baldrian
SED LEX - DE VIRUS (Brennus Music)
Upon hearing first track ' Eye Of The Moon ' I have to say that I was blown away by this melodic power metaller from yet another French band called Sed Lex. The vocals from Jean-Luc Maza are all sung in English and this eight minute long song was excellent and reminded me of so many bands. Most impressive was the guitar playing which Maza plays and shows how talented he is. If you like bands like Yngwie Malmsteen, Ring Of Fire, Talon then you will love Sed Lex. I can also hear hints of Pretty Maids and their songs are well performed, catchy and have a polished production sound.
' Dog's Bite ' is very eighties and shows examples of catchy melodic rock like Pretty Maids, there are some nice keyboards performed by Jean-Marc Lafaye that parp along effectively, in fact this is the type of eighties rocker that could have been on a film or TV soundtrack, very catchy and enjoyable, excellent vocals from Maza. ' Fear Of The Dark ' is next is more of the same, a little more heavier like Talon and again blistering in keyboards. ' Whispers In The Rain ' is very neo-classical, especially the keyboards, not a brilliant song though. ' Harvests Of Disorder ' shows some experiments in the keyboards, almost spooky like the Halloween movie theme, this song is darker but very good and is over eight minutes long. Next is the catchy ' Dust 'N' Bones '. This one is very melodic, lots of keys and almost hit AOR standards. A catchy song that makes me think of Millenium.
' Murderer's Tea ' is more of the same and is pretty cool whilst ' Blank Destination ' is very straight forward melodic hard rock, catchy and simple with hot guitars, reminds me of the band Pulse. ' Foundations Of A Dream ' is a lovely piano based ballad. The vocals are massive here and the whole mood of this song reminds me of Robbie Valentine. ' Dream Of Escape ' is hook-laden 80's rock, lots of keys dominate this catchy melodic rocker that is a whopping seven minutes long. ' Carrousel ' is another long song, at over eight minutes in length, it's also very good and catchy and very eighties sometimes like Dokken with loads of keys, and features shit-hot guitar patterns that have a strong neo-classical "Mozart" influence.
So France finally gives us a superb melodic rock band, I really enjoyed this album and is well worth you checking out. Visit them at http://sedlex.chez.tiscali.fr for more info or visit www.brennus.fr.fm and hopefully an interview with Sed Lex soon.
80/100 Nicky Baldrian