GIALORGUES

The debut-album from the French band Shylock starts very promising on the first track: beautiful harpsicord-like arpeggio's and the wonderful sound of the string-ensemble, then bombastic eruptions featuring fiery electric guitar runs. The climates quickly change from mellow to more heavy or bombastic, the drums sound very propulsive and dynamic and the guitarwork is powerful ('Fripperian-like'). The second track and third compositions contain many good ideas and some very strong breaks, shifting moods and compelling interplay between the guitar and keyboards but the King Crimson echoes are very obvious, sometimes a bit too. This keeps it from deserving four stars.