The fourth release from French band Eclat is a mostly instrumental outing of energetic and aggressive progressive rock. Led by the virtuoso talents of guitarist Alain Chiarazzo and keyboard player Thierry Masse, Eclat are like a super charged version of fellow French band Priam, as they construct complex songs that feature strong solos and vibrant melodies.
The balance between heavy, almost prog-metal inspired tunes, and more atmospheric neo-prog commercialism is quite nice. “Eternite” starts off with some cranking guitar riffs, which give way to ethereal keyboard washes and a melodic Steve Rothery inspired guitar solo. The bands blend of classical symphonic sounds, jazzy experimentation, and heavy rock also works well on tracks such as “Tri-Un”, “Energies”, and the dynamite title track. Chiarazzo struts his stuff admirably on both electric and acoustic, and even participates in some nifty Dixie Dregs influenced tradeoffs with guest violinist Francois Fiddler on a few tracks.
This is a very pleasing release on every front. To add to the wonderful sounds contained on the disc, the awesome cover art just happens to be by famous prog artist Paul Whitehead, who designed a few of the early Genesis album covers, as well as the recent release from Le Orme. Eclat might have created a future classic of French prog with this latest CD.
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