CHAINS

When I first listened to this album I admit that I was deeply disappointed...It seemed to me like boring uninspired neo prog...After a couple of days and several listens of the album I can say that this effort is at least decent...Yes, it is fairly categorized as a neo prog band...Yes, RICOCHER are influenced by legends of this genre...To my ears the most obvious influences are ARENA and CLEPSYDRA or even GALLEON...There are lots of keyboards during the whole album very close to the work of CLEPSYDRA or CLIVE NOLAN...Some more mellow synthesizer lines will bring MARILLION to your mind...The sound of the guitar is rather heavy close to the later ARENA works with some very good melodies...Do not expect time signatures or complex arrangements by RICOCHET...The band prefers to show emphasis on melody and atmosphere with tracks changing from accesible prog rock to symphonic neo prog...But there isn't a simple weak track,the album flows nice and easily,but surely I expect a liitle bit of diversity in their next efforts...For the moment my rating stops to 3 stars and I recommend this album especially for fans of melodic neo-prog...