EPILOG

This album is a follow-up of the Swedish band's critically acclaimed debut album "Hybris" released two years before. In my opinion, Änglagård was one of the top 10 bands of the 90's even though they did not last long. After this album the band took a very long break until they did a live record in 2003. The music of Änglagård is really dark in mood and it draws influences from King Crimson and Genesis. The music is similar also with Sinkadus. Jonas Engdegård (born in 1974), Änglagård's lead-guitarist, was also the main composer of "Epilog" together with Thomas Johnson (keyboard).

With a classical music influence, "Prolog" (2:00) opens the album with flute and string arrangement augmented with acoustic guitar. It's a beautiful opener that sets the whole ambience of this album. The music reminds me to King Crimson's Lizard and Island album. Hammond organ continues the music into "Höstsejd" (15:32) which has loads of Hammond and mellotron work. Composed in slow tempo fashion, the music brings us a dark mood with a combination of continuous stream of music. There is also strong indication on avant-garde style especially on parts where the song enters into quiet passages. "Skogsranden" (10:48) starts with a very quiet passage where flute and keyboard give dominant textures of the music. The music turns into aggressive style at approx min 2:40 featuring a complex arrangements using guitar, bass, guitar and keyboard. Whenever this part is happening it's a great listen really as the music is complex yet harmonious. Unfortunately this track contains so much quiet passages. "Sista Somrar" (13:10) is also explorative in nature as it has much of quiet passages. The combination of mellotron and other flute is really good. The album concludes with "Saknadens Fullhet" (2:00) that comprises piano solo in quiet mood.

Overall, this is a very good album as it has a mixture of strong composition combined with excellent musicianship by the band members. So how I can recommend you? Put it this way: if you are open mind and willing to receive arrangements that do not sound melodic to your ears, this album is a very good choice to be in your collection. And remember, the overall mood of the music is dark. You will find a lot of styles exploration combining complex music as well as quiet passages for relatively long duration. The decision is yours. As a matter of personal taste, many passages of this album move very slow and make me bored a bit. Whatever your decision is, keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW.