ANGELS AND DEMONS

"Angels and Demons" is the debut album of the Russian band ALGABAS from Vladimir (which is the ancient Russian town). This is music composed in the tradition of Genesis, Marillion, and IQ, but played with "heavier elements". Good drums, active bass, beautiful keyboards (with frequent use of digital strings), guitars (both hard-rockish and Rothery-oriented) and - to some extent, crude and not sweet but charismatic - male vocals (in Russian) create enjoyable atmosphere for neo-progster. The best song is dark "Madness Formula" with dramatic accents and riffs but all other songs including one instrumental track can also be considered as interesting and appealing. Touch of traditional Russian folk music adds charm. More diverse sound, more various - in tempo and mood - songs - and more complicated approach to composition-making would make this music much more marvellous. Highly recommended for lovers of both melodic and driving prog rock (if they do not afraid Russian vocal which is radically different from Lake, Fish etc). This album can be ordered from Mals Records, famous Moscow prog label.