HYBRIS

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Well crafted composition, flawless performance!

Anglagard was formed as a venture to reinvent music with the basis of early senties sounds. It started with Tord Lindman and Johan Högberg join forces until this album "Hybris" was created. As stated in the opening sleeve Introduction: "This music is built on a very human base . through conflict. It's created with the thought of each person's momentary feelings, with a lot of variations as a starting point." It's a quite impressive introduction even before I listened to the CD.

When I spun the CD at the first time, it caught my attention as my first feeling told me that this music was definitely created with perfection. Why did I say that? Oh yes.. I can feel it right from the opening track "Jordrök" (11:10) where the band performs the tune flawlessly with accurate precision. There are many surprises throughout the song combining multi instruments like guitars, keyboard / Hammond / mellotron, dynamic bass lines and powerful drumming. The tempo moves dynamically from high to low and comes back to high with great melody. What surprises me is that with this relatively long duration I don't get any sense of getting bored at all from intro right to the end.

"Vandringar i Vilsenhet" (11:53) starts mellow with a combination of smooth flutework and keyboard, augmented beautifully with acoustic guitar and deep bass lines. Oh man .. the opening melody is really melodic and catchy. It's damn hard for not remembering this part because it's really nice. The music moves into complex arrangement with great combination of guitar, flute and dazzling drum work. Wow! It's really a terrific arrangements! Unlike the opening track which is instrumental, this one has unique vocal line and it's so energetic. Listening to this track, I feel like being dragged ups and downs with great enjoyment of rich textures of the music. The structure is complex but it does not harm the overall music flow. All of the segments are connected smoothly with great transition pieces which in most part are augmented with flute or vocal.

"Ifrån Klarhet Till Klarhet" (8:04) kicks with an ambient style followed with a blast of music that sounds relatively complex, combining guitar, mellotron, bass lines and powerful drumming. The song moves into lyrical part through the bridge of mellotron sound. During this lyrical part the music turns into mellow style with catchy melody. The non-English lyrical part enriches the music and brings it to the next level. The slient break combining acoustic guitar and mellotron / keyboard after first lyrical part is really stunning and enjoyable.

"Kung Bore" (12:57) starts off with a classical guitar work augmented with soft piano work. It's quite interesting intro, especially when the music flows into complex part using Hammond as main rhythm section - reminds me to Keith Emerson of ELP. Like the other three tracks, this is a wonderful one!

My CD includes a bonus track "Gånglåt från Knapptibble" which was recorded in August 1993 for the English magazine Ptolemaic Terrascope who wanted to release a single to come with the magazine. It's another great track even though it's a bonus track. This reconfirms the music of Anglagard as a combination of Genesis (expecially the melody), ELP (especially on how keyboard is played) ,Yes (especially on complex structure) and Gentle Giant (complex structure and some vocal line).

Conclusion

It's definitely a masterpiece of prog album. You might reckon that the music presented in "Hybris" is not truly original in styles because the band combines all elements of early seventies music into composition. But, I have to admit that the band has written great composition in this debut album. Highly Recommended! Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

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