CoC : Eros Necropsique - Crises de Lucidité : Review

Eros Necropsique - _Crises de Lucidité_
(Adipocere, 2003)
by: Pedro Azevedo (4 out of 10)

When you choose to call your project Eros Necropsique and release an album presented in A5 digibook format, with a black and white photo of a naked girl lying on the floor embracing a skull as the front cover, you risk coming across as pretentious -- and either your music and lyrical concept are going to be good enough to justify that approach to the way you present your work, or you're pretty much doomed. However presented, _Crises de Lucidité_ is a 55 minute album comprised of work spanning from 1995 to 1998. The music is a stripped down affair built from vocals, keyboard, bass and artificial percussion, and it is mostly the creation of one Olivier. In each successive song, French poems are recited in a half-spoken, half-sung manner through generally well performed vocals. Although brimming with confidence, they are confined to a relatively safe style. These are occasionally complemented by a smooth but samey soprano voice. Sometimes the music veers towards more medieval fields, some others into more tragic settings, and yet others towards somewhat Elend-like symphonic soundscapes. However, Eros Necropsique fall well short of Elend's grandeur; their medieval material comes across as uninteresting, and the more tragic moments entirely depend on how well you can take this sort of gothic theatrics. Ultimately, _Crises de Lucidité_ is let down by its lack of direction and unconvincing instrumental side. This is not a terrible effort and it does have a few redeeming qualities, but unless you tend to like their chosen subject matter quite a lot, you are unlikely to find much that will interest you here.

Contact: http://erosnecropsique.cjb.net

(article published 14/3/2004)