ARACHNOID

Arachnoid is a 1978 anachronism, an album that was definitely not well-adapted to its time, but nevertheless it's a remarkably solid one, probably one of the best classic Prog albums from the end of the 70's, with an eclectic style reminiscent of the symphonic dramatics of Ange and the dark and chromatic chord progressions of King Crimson. It also has a slightly spacey approach to the keyboard playing, which are much more upfront then the guitars, but even for a "keyboards-in-rock-skeptic" like myself the result is entirely pleasing.

Everything holds together very well, the compositions are lively and dynamic, and there's no soloist detracting the attention from the essence. All performers play very fluently and intuitively, with a nice organic and very rocking sound. In other words, an album with an edge. Recommended for fans of prog hybrids with elements from Symphonic Prog as well as Avant and Space-rock. The band called it quits after this album. Had they released this 5 years earlier the future might have looked a lot brighter for them!

PS. If you want to check a more modern French album with a similar vibe, I'd recommend Nil's "Nil Novo Sub Sole"