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Kris Verwimp anyone? This is the second album tonight that I have covered with the man's artwork on it and I didn't even realize it until seeing his signature in the lower right hand corner. Guy really gets around apparently, and a good thing! If there's anything metal needs more of, its good artwork. Le Grand Guignol is a band that I'm already well-acquainted with, having bought their album from CD Baby for an ex-bandmate of mine for christmas last year, and them actually turning out to be a large influence of his in said band as the months progressed up to my departure. The part that I'm confused about is, who the hell would have ever thought that ex-members of FALKENBACH would have come together under the banner of a band playing such symphonic, quite insane music? We should have seen this coming but the beginning were heard in “Dregoth”, a band I can honestly say NO ONE knew until now. Though, Enid should have given us a huge clue through their partnership with Code666.

While the term “avant-garde” might be a bit displaced here, normally being reserved for the most experimental and off-the-wall projects, I felt Le Grand Guignol was deserving of such a term for their primary use of complex synths rather than complex guitar work as well as their completely strange and wonderful subject matters. Le Grand Guignol are also one of the most professional sounding bands in the world in addition to their oddball sense of style and humor. You'd have to think of it like if Akercocke suddenly became a cartoon. Can you imagine it? These men in business suits and a leader with a bicycle mustache one day completely lose their mind and decide hey, the world is nothing but a playground for our mischief. That is Le Grand Guignol. Le Grand Guignol = Cartoon Akercocke.

For Maddening Media, this had to be an incredibly important release. Rarely does a band with such talent in its folds decide to take a turn for the crazy and experiment into the world of...well...experimentation. With other insane artists aligned with them such as Uninvited Guest and Carach Angren, Maddening Media is sure to have a grand, and probably very stressful, future ahead of them. These insane abstract artists have been known to be pretty eccentric, so dealing with them on a personal level probably isn't the most fun situation in the world. Just consider yourselves lucky as lowly listeners, and enjoy the music!
Sage

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