LES 3 COULEURS

Wow, very good!!! 3.5 stars - see comments below.

The only things I'm irritated with are awful artwork (IMO) and French language in vocals. Sorry, but if you guys will continue sing French you'll never get anything higher than 4! (from me, at least) :) ABACAB reminds of DREAM THEATER a lot, and the main point of submitting them here as a Neo-Prog band was probably their "modern" sound - these two intermedias (17 and 28 seconds long) remind me of all that TMV's sounds...also they're very melodical and accessible. "Ne Me Deragez pas!" is good almost 4-minute track filled with complex signatures and powerful musicianship (a toss between bombastic early DT-style and melodic Neo- prog).Two following epics, "Les 3 Coleurs" and "La Source" (8 and almost 11 minutes!) each supplied with the same great level of musicianship and professionalism - also they're very melodical and energetic (imagine a mixture of DT's Images and Words typical epic with GENESIS one!). Closing epic ("La Source") is almost all played in complex signatures and has awesome guitar solo in the middle. A very promising debut - a bit too short (23 minutes long), but enjoyable and no way boring or repetitive.

ABACAB blurrs the lines between Neo, Symphonic and Metal Prog and this mixture DOES NOT harm any of the mentioned styles! Lets have a deal guys - give up French and you'll get your deserved 4 stars next time! ;) Highly recommended!

Abacab is a progressive rock band from France with two albums released so far, this is the first one from 2004 named Les 3 couleurs. While is not a known band in prog circles, not even in their country home, Abacab manage to creat two pleasent albums where music is combined from old french school of prog like Ange or Mona Lisa at vocal department specially, same theatrical aproach and from newer bands like Nemo, the result is Abacab. The instrumental passages remind me a lot of their country fellows Nemo, but less exciting then this band, and aswell they incorporated some prog metal elements a la Dream Theater, and only a few moments of neo prog, only at guitar department are shown arrangements who may think this band is under neo prog genre catalogated. The album has 5 pieces, not extremly well developed, but with modern sound and accesible most of the time. The best piece is the title track, where Abacab melted some DT arrangements with some Ange symphonic moments, a pleasent pieces , maybe among their beest from both albums, the rest are ok, nothing groundbreaking, but ok to listen from time to time. 3 stars for first Abacab album, quite unnoticed here in PA and low rated, but I think they desearve a little more exposure and more positive rewiews, while the timeing of the album is for an EP, nearly 25 min, Abacab shows exactly what they know best, making good music, often not for everybody taste.