Alrighty, this one is coming a little late, but such a beautiful piece of music shouldn't go unreviewed, and so I decided it needed to go online. D'un Autre Sang (which means Of Another Blood) is the third album of the French melodic prog metallers. It marks a milestone for the band. Making 3 albums all of excellent quality is something very rarely done by many bands. Even if I love everything about this album, I don't think it tops Ange Ou Démon, their previous effort. But it's not far behind, and D'un Autre Sang certainly contains some of the best tunes of this band.

After the intro, the opener song, Empire Virtuel, is a beautiful melodic Prog Tune with all the ingredients like only Manigance know how to mix and deliver. Heavy sharp riffs, melodic guitar solo, incredible vocal lines, especially the very catchy choruses and the very good (French) lyrics. Every single song has this heavy sharp atmosphere, unlike lots of melodic metal acts, Manigance doesn't try to run at 200 km per hour... no, instead they develop their songs, altering heaviness, a moody progressiveness and those incredible melodies. As always Didier's vocals are really amazing and emotion packed. The keyboards highlights the whole melodic and progressive sound, while the rhythm section is perfectly containing the heaviness of the band, even during the majestic and overly melodic guitar solos. On the lyrics side, the songs are quite powerful and dark, sometimes depressing, like on my favorite song of the album : Damocles, a song which treats a life slipping away because of terminal illness. Though an incredible song, I find myself wondering how healthy it is to sing along this song. I would have preferred a more "encouraging" chorus, one who inspire hope instead of defeat. Okay it's a song and the band probably wanted to tell about it a certain way (maybe even in memory of someone they were close) , and I totally respect that. As always I find myself really liking and giving Manigance's lyrics a lot of thoughts, probably more than on most other metal bands I listen to, maybe because my first spoken tongue is French. The production is, like it was the case with the previous album, crystal clear and very powerful.

If you know this band already, then I'm sure you'll arrive to the same conclusion as I did : D'un Autre Sang is yet another masterpiece from this incredibly talented French melodic metal band. But if you don't know Manigance yet, this album is a very good way to get yourself acquainted with their unique blend of Melodic Power / Prog Metal, a powerful and majestic melodic discharge. The artwork by Jean-Pascal Fournier is much better than their previous covers, though not my favorite painting from Jean-Pascal. I almost forgot, the CD also contains a video track, a cover of Future World with Pretty Maids (Ronnie Atkins at least) as special guests , performing the song as a duo, really cool, must have been one of these memorable live moments :). Manigance signs here a wonderful third album, and I can tell you I already look forward to their next albums. Two thumbs up !