QUARANTE JOURS SUR LE SINAÏ

This one's a real grower for me. This appears to be their third album, hard telling. What I do know is Quarante Jours sur le Sinai (40 Years in the Sinai) is a concept album on Egyptian mythology, not exactly new to prog. The CD was originally released in 2002 on the band's own label, then in Canada on Unicorn Digital in 2006. It's likely the Unicorn reissue that people even had any familiarity of the band. When I first hear this, I was thinking this had some really nice individual parts, and parts I didn't quite grasp. It was so long, over an hour long, and not divided into songs, but really two acts that on the CD is divided into 29 parts. I hear elements of King Crimson, but not a whole lot of the '70 French prog scene. At times the band can be pretty mellow, then suddendly burst into short metal madness before going back into something more calm. I've heard comparisons to Anglagard, which might not be the most useful, but like them, they play one thing, quickly move on to the next, occasionally return to an earlier theme. The keyboard playing is usually low-key with synths and a small amount of Mellotron, while guitar, fretless bass and drums more dominate. The occasional female vocals (in French) really give a nice touch. Some passages have that ominous feel to it that I really like. This is contemporary prog at its finest. I like how it never slips into neo-prog, nor do they sound like a '70s throwback.

I'm really glad to discover Nil. I look forward to getting their other CDs. The only thing preventing a five star rating is it's so long that it really required a few listens for me to get it, but once I did, I realized why many have been raving over it. You really do owe it to yourself to get this CD.