VEMOD

"Vemod" is the debut full-length studio album by Swedish progressive rock act Anekdoten. The album was released through Virtalevy in September 1993. Along with artists like Landberk, Änglagård, and The Flower Kings, Anekdoten was one of the responsible parties for the early 90s resurgence of Swedish progressive rock.

The music style on the album is a very John Wetton-era King Crimson inspired affair. Dark and melancholic mellotron parts along side dissonant, atonal, and bass heavy dittos. Lead vocalist/bassist Jan Erik Liljeström has a rather distinct sounding voice and his vocal style is pretty surely an aquired taste. The atmosphere is bleak, and melodies and vocals are drenched in melancholy. Anekdoten are generally a very well playing band, and they deliver their music with great passion and conviction (and with a great organic touch).

The 7 tracks (8 on the Japanese version of the album) on the 46:20 minutes long album are all well written, and vary between epic melancholic parts (featuring lots of mellotron and occasional use of cello), heavy and more energetic (slightly fusion influenced) parts, and mellow parts too. It´s certainly dynamic music, and the band use the light/dark effect with great success. Tracks like "Thoughts In Absence" and "Longing" represent the mellow part of the album, while tracks like "The Old Man & The Sea", and "The Flow", both represent the heavy side of the album. It´s not static though, and as mentioned above the album is quite dynamic both between tracks and within tracks.

The professional, organic, and well sounding sound production is a great asset and suits the music well. So upon conclusion "Vemod" is a strong debut album by Anekdoten. The band may wear their influences a bit too much on their sleeves on this particular release, but it´s not done in a ripp-off type of fashion, or in a way that makes the music sound like a tribute to King Crimson. Thankfully Anekdoten are real artists with a mission to create original sounding music, and they do manage to put their own spin on what might initially not sound that unique. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.