What seemed to be a new album by Nil, turned out to be a Unicorn Digital re-release of a four year old album that had been previously released by the bands own label. The artwork of the album doesn’t leave much room for imagination what the storyline is concerned. The scarab, the hieroglyves and the eye of Ra, take you right back to ancient Egypt. This concept album features two tracks, ‘Acte I’ and – what a surprise – ‘Acte II’, counting over 62 minutes. What estranged me slightly is the fact that, apart from the opening piece and some keyboard sections, there is hardly any Egyptian or Oriental influence notable in the music. If a story is based on an old Egyptian tale, I want to get the feeling of being there.

The band attempted to set a mystical atmosphere by using spacey keyboards, which in my opinion don’t fit the solid somewhat laid back rhythm section very well. The angelic female vocals (that come in on occasion) try to do the same thing, and also fail. “Quarante Jours Sur Le Sinai” is not that much more that one hour of music that is enjoyable from time to time. The best parts are the times where drum and bass dominate the music. The keyboards and guitars are distracting (and annoying) most of the times and spoil some of the nice melody changes.