NIL NOVO SUB SOLE

Nil's final album reveals the band to have enjoyed a truly broad appreciation and mastery of a diversity of prog styles. Naturally, hailing from France as they do they've heard their fair share of Magma, and the rhythm section of Frank Niebel and Samuel Maurin get into the occasional pulsating sequence which has a distinct sniff of zeuhl about it. But wait, don't pigeonhole it yet - Roselyne Berthet's vocals are more emotionally haunting and delicate than the Klingon opera we're used to from zeuhl quarters, and David Maurin's flute and Benjamin Croizy's keyboards can take us down a pastoral path to gentler symphonic territory at any moment.

The title translates roughly as "nothing new under the Sun", and if that wasn't true of the prog scene before this album was recorded, it's certainly true by the time it's over, because Nil more or less cover all the territory a prog album could conceivably cover here - and yet, never does it seem like they are just meandering aimlessly or just dabbling here and there in subgenres they don't really understand or appreciate. Far from it - Nil are masters of all they turn their hands to, and perhaps that's why they wrapped it up after this album - from here, where could they possibly go that they hadn't already been?