SAQQARAH

'Never Care ? 1' for the animalistic Floydian intro a little too obvious, to the point that I initially thought of a tribute, brief acoustic pigs revisited catchy and bringing 'Departure' for the guitar solo smelling of GILMOUR with its soft prog ballad with high, pronounced vocals; the finale with military drums and bells on a stormy sky introduces 'Dog Tag' and its dark cinematic on the war; a WATERS-style phrasing maintains the reminiscence, the guitar flirts with the sounds of 'Animals', 'The Wall'. Very good song if it came out only 45 years ago finally, today time has passed; the variation is intended to be heavy symphonic, melodic before accelerating and letting Patrice's thunderous solo close the debate, before the crickets guide us towards "Return Home" with its calm sound, its demonstrative vocals, the synth on MARILLION and the guitar towards PENDRAGON, warm reminiscences it is true. The typical neo prog finale with this keyboard that cascades its notes.

"Traders of Death" returns to the Wallian atmosphere with the hammer steps and the dark, bloody air; choirs help Jean-Luc in his mid-tempo hopping approach playing with Death, coming to get his share of souls; note the playful guitar of the solo that kills, swirling, streaming; the pad break launching a slightly repetitive frenetic rhythm. "Funerals" follows, knell at the start, an acoustic guitar as accompaniment; some more Wallian WATERS, a cover or a unique title. The crystalline guitar solo drips its notes aided by a languorous organ for this sad ballad. "Ghost Plane" appears, cinematic eyeing the 'Goodbye blue sky' with the neo prog sounds of MARILLION and the symphonic new wave of SIMPLE MINDS. This contrast allows to pass a voice-over break on a metronomic pad then to send the cinematic in waves; the air recalling the Rushian digressions; emotional solo finale, pure SAQQARAH. "Crazy" ethereal intro, crystalline letting a door open; consensual piece on ALAN PARSONS, the bass pregnant; between softness and gravity, drum rolls, laughter and the more aggressive vocal, seeming to revolt. It rises, the voices to the right, to the left, no preference to avoid discord, hey a riff from ANGE in the distance; a last languid heavy solo by Pat O'MAY just snatches the air to end one of the best tracks on the album.

"The Mirror" and the eponymous melodic piece lacking pep on the first 3 minutes; 4 parts including the second enjoyable with Patrice and his solo; stereotypical vocal variation afterward giving a sound specific to the group. The finale goes back to an "animal" path, pleasant but lacking in inventiveness with a whiff of ARRAKEEN. "Never Care - 2" on 'Pigs' again with the electric ending, keyboard reverb for another solo drawing on jovial blues rock. "The Watcher" for the outro? Yes it's not over and it starts super well with this oriental atmosphere, the desert of SAQQARAH, the folk flute in front. The air takes shape, metronomic, a heavy march with Jean-Luc who imposes himself; a guitar break, the air becomes sovereign, moves away from the FLOYDS for a while with grace and launches this last Gilmourian solo that spurts everywhere, which moves away from it at the end to feel the new SAQQARAH and throw away the lack.

A tribute album of progressive rock as we made almost half a century ago, for nostalgics of this adorable era. Originally on Profilprog.

Saqqarah propose an exceptional Neo Prog, strongly characterized by its evident PINK FLOYD, MARILLION and COLLAGE influences and very similar to the sound of PHAESIS and DELTA CYPHEI PROJECT.The album is split in 5 tracks entitled ''Phase'' (from a to e), most of them are multi-parted, with fantastic instrumental soundscapes, while Van Der Cruyssen delivers some of the most intricate French vocals you will ever listen to, sensitive, theatrical and expressive all the way.The music is outstanding for most of the time of this almost 70-min. work.Saqqarah blend the tremendous symphonic textures of COLLAGE, the intricate, lyrical approach of MARILLION and the spacey side of PINK FLOYD in a unique amalgam, full of emotions and different colors.The arrangements are long, tight and well-crafted, based on elaborate guitar solos with obvious STEVE ROTHERY and DAVID GILMOUR touches, long and spacey synthesizer runs and a few symphonic section with light organs and more edgy synths.There is not much flexibility to be found, but actually ''Genese'' does not need some.The challenging melodies, the cosmic soundscapes and the top-notch vocal lines come out of a masterful inspiration and Saqqarah offer an impressive and very personal work with zero dead holes.

One of the overlooked gems of French Prog of the 90's.Atmospheric, melodic and original spacey Neo Prog with its own character.Definilitely a must have.