VEMOD

Anekdotens Vemod, the only album by this band that I like. At first I was really turned off to the serious King Crimson take offs, but after a little while, it began to grow on me, and now, I really have very little to complain about this band. Semi simple guitar playing, super chunky bass lines, and some excellent strings are what propel this group, along with an excellent drummer, who manages to find the median between, artistically talented, and pompous show off. Once again the vocals were also a turn off, choir like, and very ulverish, they don't seem to have a lot of feeling behind them, it's almost as if the singer is singing off of some sheet music given to him for the song, but once again over some time, it began to grow on me, and the strange vocals now seem to blend in almost perfectly with the very direct music.

The album starts with Koreilia, the best track on the album, showing that the mellotron is indeed still alive and breathing outside of classic prog. After this small passage were introduced to the entire band, and what immediately gets me is how frontal the bass is, it's practically the rhythm guitar, with a very trebley tone, and a bit of distortion when the lead is doing it's chromatic arpeggios, and I absolutely love it! So the song goes, as it flows from one climax to the next, leaving you exhausted. When the next song comes and introduces the vocals, you may be a bit taken back with how formal the guy is trying to sound. I don't know whether it's because he's classically trained, or he's just trying to mask some Swedish accent to sound a little more normal, wither way, along with the lyrics, it is a bit cheesy, and it's just something you have to get used to over time. The music pretty much stays the same over the rest of the album, occasionally crumbling down to some simple electric guitar, and mellotron, but the music hits a very emotional level when you get to the song longing, an all acoustic song, and I mean completely acoustic. With only Cello's and an acoustic/classical guitar, it's so soothing you could almost compare it to some post rock. Afterwards you hit the ten minueter sad rain, while it is an excellent song, a little too long, and loses interest around the fifth minute.

Like I said before, this is the only Anekdoten album I can get into. The next couple of albums are devoid of the chunky bass lines, and just seem to lose the energy that is in Vemod. I highly recommend this to people who like King Crimson, but if you're into hard core prog, this probably isn't for you. In reality the music really doesnt strike me as terribly progressive, just extremely experimental with KC influences. Good album, good band, good songs. 4 stars