French guitar player and composer, Louis Nas, initiated his instrumental progressive metal solo project, Ominous Conclusions, in 2017, with the recording of his first album, "Prequel." This project started as a metal band with many different influences and thus called HYDRA. The band split up, but after a year at the MAI (Music Academy International) in Nancy (FRANCE), Louis rebranded it, keeping the idea of a multitude of influences, into his own instrumental solo project of Progressive Metal, now combining lyric electric guitar melodies with distortion riffing, FX instruments, and Symphonic orchestrations. He plans, by doing so, to get closer to his masters. Playing piano since the age of seven, Louis was well-versed in classical music, which will become part of his influences. Some years later, he discovered metal music and then began to learn to play guitar. "Prequel" contains six tracks.

"Mind Control Facility" opens with some electronic before a dark and heavy guitar riff drops. It's ominous and mysterious sounding, with some electronics mixed in. It does a good job of straddling that line between hope and despair, with some positive sounds mixed in. "A Heart for Two" opens with clean guitar notes. Some darker distorted guitar tones come into play as well. Some of the Progressive elements come into play with the manipulation of the meter. "Ishtar's Temple - A Divine Beauty Dwells Within" opens with some Eastern sounding clean guitars. The tones are sweet but solemn. Some female vocal chants come in at one point as the lead guitar peppers the landscape.

"Absolute Zero" opens with some odd electronica...similar to Vaporwave. The guitars join in, and the entirety of the piece sounds like something you might hear in outer space. The sound drops about half-way in, and then picks back up to where it was before. I feel like I have crawled into a wormhole in the galaxy. "Prequel" opens with some clean guitars and a despondent feeling, especially from the bass lines. The main riff is chunky and heavy...thudding like atlas stones dropping from the sky. The Progressive elements really shine here and you can tell Louis has a knack for composing out-of-the-box music. It develops into a cadence then ends on a sultry and outer-world tone. This nine-minute song definitely took some time to flesh out.

"Exclosion" closes the album. Alluring and sweet clear guitar notes open the album, with lead guitars joining in. It has a longing feeling to it. It's under two minutes in length and by the time you are smiling, it ends. Overall, this was a fascinating journey into the eclectic mind of Louis Nas. It's Progressive music, but so much more. He fuses in various other sub-genres and brings a plethora of other sounds to the party. You can tell he has the skills to sit back and wail away on the six-string, but he holds back most times in favor of the direction of the music. It was a very personal listening experience that I'm sure will appeal to a lot of fans in the genre.