PRÉSAGES

Nemo's second album, Presages continues in the same vein as their debut, released the previous year in 2002. Nemo combine elements of symphonic prog, heavy rock and occasional jazzy moments into complex and inventive compositions with plenty of space for long instrumental sections between the French sung vocals.

In J P Louveton they have a guitarist who's both technically proficient and inventive with it; never overplaying for the sake of it but unleashing fiery lead runs and laying down heavy riffs where required. The rest of the band are no slouches either - an incredibly tight rhythm section twist and turn through the complexities of the compositions overlaid with dextrous keyboard work.

While Presages presents a slightly more mature writing style to Les Nouveaux Mondes what it lacks is some of the hooks of that debut. Nevertheless, there's still plenty to get your teeth into on the dynamic and ever shifting compositions with some exciting moments of instrumental interplay. There are however moments of instrumental noodling that lack direction and loose my interest but these are thankfully few and far between.

Overall a very good second effort, that falls a little short of 4 stars, so let's settle for 3 ½.