ENTANGLED

I first started out wit h the dreaded it's not a four, but more than a 3 rating - 3.75. Enough to get me salivating as I await their next release, hopefully this year. And then I thought "I've listened to this album 15-20 times in the past two months; more than the new releases from AC/DC, King's X, and D.O.A. . Apart from Marillion's Happiness is the Road, I haven't played an album that much in some time". So it really should be a four. If I may start out with a very succinct overview of this band's sound on this release - imagine Genesis meets Maneige, with Gabriel era Genesis meets Neo vocals (yes, I know. some say Neo is Gabriel vocals), all put together with the Piano as the main instrument. This makes for a sparser sound than either Genesis or Maneige, but by no means minimalist. A little B3, some synth, no mellotron. Just piano, guitar, bass, drums.Think back to early Genesis, Trespass era, with a similarity in the vocals to early Peter Nicholls from IQ. The vocals show traces of an accent of their native french language. It reminds me of the better efforts of the Italian groups' English recordings. But the lyrics do not show any strain from being sung & written in their second language. So how can a Symphonic fan not like this little band from Levis ?

P.S. Oh, to avoid a little confusion - the last song sounds as if it is cut short. That is on purpose. If you play the CD on repeat, i.e. the CD restarts after the end of the last song, you will find that it flows into the first song as if they are part of the same composition. Indeed, the group says that the next planned release Ashes City, may start the same way, as if it were part two of Entangled.

Well worth your time, and best of all, if you find the songs on their MySpace and Facebook pages to your liking, you can order or download this album through their website.

ok ! ok ! I know most of PA menbers says "... one another Genesis clone !" However I consider which we need calm with the Leimotiv's music. In spite the sound realy shows a strong influence from Genesis(especially in the vocalizations), but not only: I hear cleary influences of another great bands like Gentle Giant, Rennaissance, Happy The man and much more, besides, the moments where you can feel more strong Genesis influences presents a certain will to release the music of this tendency, changing the beats or instrumental timbres to make the audience forget such influence. To tell the truth in some moments the band introduce some moments totaly out of the Symphonic Progressive Rock sphere. The musicians are excellent and the quality of records are also very good. My rate is 4 stars !!!

I'd say the music is really well done. The guitar playing is impressive, the keyboard work complements it nicely and the drumming is solid. The bass playing doesn't stand out in a negative way either. Compositionally the album is also very good, even if some parts may feel a bit drawn out and repetitive (filler ish) almost as if the songwriter(s) needed more ideas despite not being able to come up with enough parts. Overall, it's very nice. Kinda jazzy, but with some rockin' touches, a good balance between imaginative and atmospheric. I'd give the musical side of Entangled a thumbs up.

There is one thing that kills my enjoyment of this album. It's the vocals. TBH I can tolerate the accentuating on the wrong syllable, the off pronunciation, the constant uncomfortable wailing, the vocalist randomly breaking into spoken word and the incredibly strained vocal tone. But... the vocals are off pitch! Yes. The vocals are out of tune. Ouch! And that alone makes them unbearable. They ruin the album, I'm afraid. So, sorry folks, I can't really rate this album any higher because of this glaring flaw.