VITTJAR

The Swedish folk/progressive rock has been with us since 1975. Actually Kaipa is a band with a pretty eclectic pallet and is hard to pin down to one category, although their progressive-ness is undeniable, there is also something very retro about Kaipa and their new album "Vittjar", it certainly has a 70's feel to it, but updated for 2012 of course.

"Vittjar" is Kaipa's 12th album and features 8-songs and well over an hour's worth of music. For the most part the songs are long progressive numbers with a few exceptions. The opening 3-minute instrumental "First Distraction" gives way to the 12-minute "Lightblue and Green". This is a pretty cool song that has a bit of a Queen feel to it and vocalist Patrik Lundstrom reminds me a bit of Freddy Mercury at times. There is a lot going on in this song, and even though it is rather lengthy, it doesn't seem like it is long at all. Up next is the epic of all epics, at 22-minutes long "Our Silent Ballroom Band" is by far the longest song on the album. "Our Ballroom Band" opens acoustically and accompanied by a flute as the sweet vocals of Aleena Gibson join in. Vocalist Patrik Lundstrom then comes in and pretty much takes over the song for awhile before Aleena returns and the two pretty much trade off vocals throughout much of this mammoth song. Some other highlights include "Vittjar" "A Universe of Tinyness" and "Treasure-House" which features Queen like vocal harmonies and turns into one of the best songs on "Vittjar".

With "Vittjar", Kaipa continues to think outside the prog box. It is unbelievable that all of these years later Kaipa has remained relevant (if not more so) in the progressive rock genre ? "Vittjar" is confirmation of that fact.

Review by Tony Cannella