DANTE'S INFERNO

Mid-90's found Marc Brasse in a workaholic period.Not only he was working on the next Brasse album, but he also set the process to establish his own record label.Eventually LaBraD'or Records, based in Apeldoorn, came to life and Brasse's third album ''Dante's Inferno as performed by Brasse'' was its first release in 1997, an ambitious concept work, where Brasse recruited female vocalist Leny Caanen along with the usual suspect Maarten Huiskamp on bass and guitars.

The familiar sound of the band is still there, but this time Brasse seems to have lose much of its grandiosity and unique inspiration.The album is split in 17 pieces with its ups and downs with Brasse trying to capture a unique personal approach on the concept , alternating between different moods and atmospheres, always under the Neo Prog umbrella.The result though is an album of inconsistency, with some tracks sounding a bit cheesy or uninspired, sometimes having a too mechanical keyboard sound or uninteresting electronic effects like the horrible sampled flutes.The vocals of the album range from angry performances to sweet deliveries, depending on the track.However Brasse never stopped to be an incredible composer and thus you can still find pieces with bombastic keyboard parts, great guitar hooks and plenty of symphonic grandieur.And like in ''Pawn'' there are melodic symphonic passages mixed with powerful bombastic keyboard parts to satisfy the prog listener, just to make you a bit nostangic over the previous album.

Maybe Brasse's definite Neo Prog approach on a concept like this was not the right choice, but if you skip this fact, this album is still a good effort among the genre's releases, with interesting keyboard, vocal and guitar parts, though a bit flat at moments.Recommended.