I have Hybris and Viljans Oga. They are really unique albums, but very hard to digest without multiple diligent listens, especially the latter. Definitely not easy listening, but music of that caliber shouldn't be considered as such. I love them both for different reasons. Hybris I prefer, but Viljans Oga is distinctive enough to stand alone as an exceptional prog album.

I actually didn't miss the vocals; it seemed to me the tracks didn't need them to create such a unique set of moods and atmospheres, so including them might have been distracting, as dense as everything already was.

angelodevita wrote: Does anyone know what the cover art for Hybris means? It looks like a sun, a mandala...but what is the true meaning?

Perhaps it's a tribute to his grandmother as a young girl.

richardh wrote: Mellotron Storm wrote: Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote: richardh wrote: I've found the latest album a lot tougher to listen to than Hybris. I have to give them the benefit of the doubt and persevere if only because the level of musicianship is the very highest. I need more time to 'get it' perhaps. Sadly, as much as it's still rather good, for me the latest one is not a patch on the previous two. It doesn't have that sense of flow, the constant reprises that the first two albums have. Strangely, I also get quite sick of it by about the half way point and rarely hear the album all the way through to the end. It's noisy, fragmented and abrasive, too many little sections and ideas that don't really form together too well. But...it's certainly not a case of a band running out of ideas. Just a different approach than before, experimenting, and definately not merely repeating themselves. Guess I admire it more than actually like it. I also noticed that, personally for me, I can think of endless other fairly recent instrumental albums that wipe the floor with it.   Hybris will probably always be my favourite of their three studio allbums and yes i'd rate Epilog ahead of the new one. Maybe as richardh says the new one is simply a tougher listen. Now considering I gave it 5 stars means I obviously was veyr impressed, but I prefer the nineties releases. I've held off reviewing it as my instinct is to mark it down but I think part of the problem is the large gap between Epilog and Viljan Oga.  Hybris especially has become as important in my mind as any of the seventies classic symph albums and now we have something new to ponder over. Its a brave and committed work certainly. I think my feelings towards it are mirrored by Glass Hammers If which is a similarly dense offering although a different style of symph. I'm only just coming round to liking that but its been a struggle.

I still don't know how to rate it personally. While I'm listening to it, I think 4, but for some reason after like three hours go by I think it's a 5. Maybe it's the kind of album that's simply too dense to assess in the context of the immediate musical impact. Maybe I need to listen to it a few more times still... I've had it since Christmas of this past year, but it doesn't make it in the rotation as often as others.