Check it out if you like your prog heavy, diverse, with a dark edge and a small art rock angle thrown in.

This is only the second album for these French prog rockers who have actually been a band for fifteen years. Although there’s a Gaelic influence in the music that helps give this band their own character, they do owe a large debt to the prog metal of Dream Theater and Opeth. Another key influence is King Crimson that comes to the fore during some of the soloing. Lengthy tracks, frequent time changes, complex arrangements and dark lyrics about losing someone close to you make this a long, varied and on the whole interesting ride.

There’s some heavy double bass, fluid guitar work and crunchy riffing which is interspersed by mellow atmospheric passages that show off the band’s diversity. Any band with three guitarists has got to get the thumbs up. Christian Greven’s vocals are metal, sometimes gnarly, occasionally spoken and he takes us on a wordy, lyrical journey. Although he sings in English, following the narrative is a tall order and interest can wane occasionally, but on the whole his vocals do make an emotional connection such as on the title track and the jazzier ‘Elements’. When this happens it makes for some engrossing prog. ‘Trailokya’ has an early Marillon flavour with Greven’s theatrically spoken verse but the rawer production sound of the thrashy guitar riffs and drums seems somewhat at odds with the grandeur the music is trying to evoke.

The centrepiece of the album is the title track which weighs in at 21minutes. It walks you through many different sub-genres of prog rock. With its 70s Brit prog influenced opening, it slowly builds from a gentle pastoral tune to full blown metal and even thrash. Here Greven’s voice and lyrics pile on the metal anguish, coming across like the unhinged Danish metallers Third Eye. It’s deliberately unsettling and the closing track, the mellow ‘The Form’ comes as a welcome respite.

Check it out if you like your prog heavy, diverse, with a dark edge and a small art rock angle thrown in.

Duncan Jamieson