CD / digital, Force of Nature, 2009
www.myspace.com/lanformatique
The beginning puts me inside “Resident Evil 3” and reminds me of an epic adventure. The mixture of heavy and clean guitars and live drums, as well as some soft synths and glitches works really well. I believe I could describe this release as an epic journey through an unknown land of lost souls, flying spirits who hope to find their long-gone, decadent bodies. It might also be described as a light industrial/electronic mixture. The whole of “The Sadness of Distances” has a similar feel to it and LAN Formatique uses basically the same approach to express themselves all the way through.
I really liked hearing something different here, a sound that has both elements of metal and electronic, mingled together on a boiling pot of hot magma that goes down the mountain and hits the small village of common, single-minded people ferociously. At the same time the tunes can be very chilled and calm, inducing relaxation. So the balance has been achieved and can be quite pleasant for those into that kind of music. I’d love to see more experimentation, however, but I do understand the artists’ point of view.
The final result is an adventure inside a destroyed and almost deserted city where creatures and humans fight to survive in a quest to stay alive just another day. The feelings go back and forth and one tune puts me in danger, just to throw me back to safety and rescue me later. The use of some kind of calm and relaxing background synths, in contrast with heavy guitar riffs, is quite enjoyable and sounds really nice, but again it could be used differently sometimes. It keeps repeating the same formula all the way through, but with great results, no doubt about it, sticking to this style quite well.
Definitely not the music for the impatient, but for those who see themselves on a journey after a magic stone that will save the civilisation from the creatures that hunt them day and night, desiring their souls. A word could describe the whole of this album: epic.
[7.5/10]
— João Ricardo