Aor Dream Zones
www.aordreamzones.com
French progressive band Menam impressed me with their dazzling new album which ahs to be one of the best prog/rock album to emerge since Spock's Beard's "The Light".
'Wandering' opens with funky Randy Coven style bass playing, then the synths override the track as it builds into catchy well performed Dream Theater meets say Primus/Faith No More style funky prog rock. David Moussion has a really good voice and the mixture of funk and prog and racy guitars works really well and I enjoyed this track.
'La Nation Hybride' is more spooky with eerie synths and colder vocals sung in the bands native language, the song builds again like Dream Theater with fantastic guitars and superb bass work and strong melodic vocals, would have been better in English.
'Chao Phraya' is next and opens with Chinese style keyboard influences that works well, this is followed by really cool exotic neo-classical guitars and keys, very laid back and reminding me of Marty Freidman, and I'm a huge Marty Friedman and Cacophony fan so this track works really well for me with its complex structures and fiery shredding that comes in at just over 10 mins long, totally brilliant stuff that again ends up being very much like Dream Theater, best song on the album, best prog track I have heard since Spock's Beard 'The Light', I just love it when a song grabs you like this.
''Anakrousis' is a more solid driving number, as with the above the song glides with expert musicianship and passion fuelled guitar melodies, this is another track that will have prog fans in technical heaven.
'Eclat De Lumiere' again is sung in the bands native tongue and is another show of technical brilliance, it runs in at over 14 mins long and split over three parts 'Legende Des Temps Anciens', 'Sur Le Chemin', 'Redemption De Lumiere' and offers everything prog fans want to hear, even though it is not in English the music is breathless and words just cannot describe the feeling of this song, you just have to hear it and enjoy the pleasures of 14 mins of musical brilliance, if only this was English, oh boy it would have been even better :-)
'Sundown Tears' is an slicing piece of music with deep passionate guitars, the track is a mixture of Joe Satriani and Eric Johnson, very melodic with haunting vocals.
'Life Of A Dream' again has that exotic Marty Friedman/Jason Becker feel and is just awesome with a little more of a Gothic slant to the vocals and dark soundtrack influenced keyboards. Overall this is a superb progressive rock album and one of the best of the genre this year. I look forward to hearing more music from Menam in the future.
80/100
Nicky Baldrian