ESCAPING FROM THE HANDS OF GOD

Ok, I tried again. I had bought this album quite some time ago, along with Prophet In A Statiscal World, because of the high rating reviews, and thinking they might be a good neo prog band. Needless to say, Saens is anything but. I`m still wondering what´s the kind of criteria to label a musical group as neo prog. To me, and to everybody else I know, neo prog means sounding like early Marillion, IQ, Pendragon, Twelfth Night, Jadis, etc. with beautiful melodies strongly influenced by Camel, Genesis, Pink Floyd and, to a lesser extend, Yes and ELP. Well, this is NOT what you´ll find here. Saens does a kind of complicated sound that has some nice melodies here and there, but most of the time it gives you the impression of a band who decided to call themselves ´artists´. That meaning they should sound like no one else, even if this means sacrifying coherence, harmony or even flow. The sudden time changs and shifting moods, so dearly to most progheads (including me), seems to be forced, out of place and without any needing, most of the time spoiling the beautiful melody line that had just started.

And again the vocals are another problem: they´re so overdramatic they ruined any chance to enjoy the tune´s singing parts. Again it seems the case when the guy is simply trying too hard to sound original and unique. It comes across as simply boring in the end. And boring is what I call this CD. Saens just can´t resist to destroy any chance to write a good tune and stay with it, letting the music do the talk. The natural sequence is all changed because they seem to want to do something different for the sake of it, not bothering to see if it fits the picture. Again, this is a pity, because you can hear they are obviously skilled musicians, the production is superb and the cover art is great. Just in the songwriting and arrangement departments those guys can´t (or don´t want to) cut it.

Conclusion: if you like complicated music without much harmony then Saens is probably for you. But if you´re looking for good neo prog music in the vein of the aforemetioned great ones of the 80´s or even the fine new outfits like the excellent Flamborough Head, Clepsydra, La Tulipe Noire, etc. forget it. Don´t spend your hard earned money like I did on this dud. Looking for neo prog music? go somewhere else! 1,5 star.