A fine progressive album performed by some quality musicians.
Delusion Squared is a progressive, female-voiced rock band from France that formed in 2009. The band’s self-titled debut came out in 2010 and centres on a dark story about a girl born in to an apocalyptic post nuclear world run by technology. Despite it being against the law, she eventually gives birth naturally to a child and the album covers her beginnings and tells the story of her life. The band now returns with the sequel to this story with the simply titled ‘II’.
This album has the feel of a work of art as much as a musical album. ‘Double Vision’ is the opening salvo and has soft acoustic notes preceding a pulse like electric riff and some rich synth. This pulse gains depth and converts to quite a crunchy progression before the somewhat catchy if intricate chorus. There are more guitar oriented efforts such as ‘Necrogenesis’ where the bass and six string fire up at a frenetic pace from the off. But like most of the songs, it evolves into a different more grinding riff as the song progresses. Recipe For Disaster’ has some impressive opening fret work but this time it converts to a funky riff. But ‘II’ is not just progressive rocking; there are also some emotional ballads found on this release.
The best song ‘Veridical Paradox’ is extremely mellow with full bloodied piano and emotional vocals which give way to an extremely passionate melody on the guitar. ‘Abduction’ is another ballad-like number which comprises of more acoustic fret work and plenty of bass along with warm vocals. ‘Naked Solipsism’ cleverly opens with soft acoustic notes along with solitary vocals. This behaves like a mellow slow ballad for almost three minutes before the main electric guitar explodes in life. The most atmospherically charged offering here is ‘Faith Mission’ a track that combines a chunky riff and soaring fret work that gives the listener the feeling of floating on the clouds The last of the nine tracks ‘Unexpected Messiah’ and the album’s longest, has electric effects interlaced with an acoustic melody and layered keys to give a deeply textured close.
This is a solid, beautifully crafted and superbly performed album. Delusion Squared stands firmly in the progressive rock category with influences from Porcupine Tree and Pink Floyd. Musically this album is excellent, Lorraine Young doesn’t have the strongest voice ever but she does have plenty of emotion to her lyrics and her style perfectly fits this softer rock vibe. But it is Steve Francis who is the star and he is responsible for some truly delicious riffs and solos. From sublime notes on the acoustic strings to full blown electric shredding, he shows immense ability. The production and mixing is top notch also and the album has a lovely polished finish.
This record should appeal to a whole host of fans from different genres especially those into a more melodic style of rock. This is a fine progressive album performed by some quality musicians.
Dave Scott
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