"After tasting it, and not knowing where it came from, the steward congratulated the bridegroom on departing from the custom of serving the best wine first by serving it last" (John 2:6-10).
I would do the same with this album, and start with the music.
Don't get me wrong, it is good hardcore. As usual with Nine Eleven, it is powerful. You got the big guitars, you got the profound drumming sound, you got the angry barking (Any doubt? Check the intro of "Dance on your own ruins tomorrow"). It is also well built, the songs are everything you want except linear. And it is melodic. The variety in the structure is also reflected by new sounds, like violins, cellos, piano, etc. Yes, Ma'am, piano. It makes a noticeable difference with the "City of quartz" album.
But I don't think the real difference lies in the news instruments (As they only appear on "Maison Dieu"), but in the style in itself. Whereas "City of Quartz" was almost as rock'n roll as hardcore, we witness in "Le rêve de Cassandre" a change in the style in itself, as you would say about a writer. This time hardcore is mixed with something... would I dare? I would: symphonic. Yes again Ma'am. Symphonic. And nothing (or almost nothing) to do with the piano, and the cellos. It is more linked to the structure of some songs (choral singing, with the song growing, growing to reach a climax, melodic parts for the guitars), and an overall impression of something greater, more ambitious than the usual 2 minutes hxc song. Maybe I focused too much on "Maison Dieu", but I think this song not only gives this new "color" to the all album, but is also its paradigm.
More ambition, definitely.
But the ambition you can notice in the music has nothing to do with the one underlying the lyrics.
Because when it comes down to the content of the songs...
Let's say it is as much an album as a (very) short novel. And when I started to read the lyrics, I did exactly like if it was a book (partially, I confess, because I wasn't able to follow the rhythm of the singing and read at the same time). I even turned the music off.
I discovered a first story, then an other one, and an other one. I saw them crossing themselves, aboves seas, countries, timelines and frontiers. I met the characters, some fictional, some real, some I don't even know. The plot rolling and unrolling from scenery to scenery, recent past, older past, fire, blood, the sea, love, infancy, death... big themes for small songs, linked by short texts to get the coherence of the whole.
I won't tell anything about the plot in itself, everything you need to know is here. Just let me tell you it is clearly epic (the maritime journey with the various proofs, the "monsters" met, the hero fleeing in home-land, the Cassandre of the title, the Trojan horse and the visit to hell, ... reminds you of a greek guy, doesn't it?), and it may have influenced the music.
It is also highly political, as usual with Nine Eleven. Not in a frontal/demagogic way, but through the events, the life the characters of the story. The political stance is used as a background, through a variety of themes: illegal immigration, unionism, terrorism, colonization, which makes this dimension rather subtle.
Other interesting element about the writing are the intra and extra references sprinkled over the whole lyrics. The constant play on the number 9 and 11 for example is like the internal structure of the whole story. The forth-and-go movement between these to numbers is like the tic-tac of the often evoked clock. But it also refers to external elements like the two 9/11, which are mentioned and wisely included in the narrative (not an easy task).
And I am sure there is a lot more to say about the lyrics. That's what make this album really exciting, because it seems that the more you look at it, the more things you can find.
"Le rêve de Cassandre" at nine eleven bandcamp.
And while you are there why don't you listen also to the "City of Quartz" album? Especially "In bed with Madonna" and that really really cool break (00.29).
A bit of source crossing as a dessert? Here's the review from SWNK.
