DÅRSKAPENS MONOTONI

Kaipa from the beginning (till the end). This record is absolutely beautiful though one has to know that I rarely find anything to critisize when it comes to Roine Stolt's work. 'Darskapens Monotoni' has Roine written all over it without sounding like any of his other current projects. Of course one finds melodic similarities to his current project with Jon Anderson and his current selection of guitar sounds and production preferences are also not estranged from his composing style today but the music sounds fresh nonetheless, due of course also to the swedish vocals and the input of the other band members. Here we find classic symphonic progressive rock in the spirit of the first half of the 70s with tiny swedish folkloric movements sprinkled on top, giving this record a Kaipa feel, similar to the Kaipa Decca Years. The opener, of the same title as the album, begins with the melody that rests in ones head for the rest of the duration of the 66 minute album and turns into a heavy upward moving melody played unisono by guitar, organ and bass. During the course of this small epic the main theme recurs again in interesting harmonic variations and ends with the beautiful atmospheric soundscape of functional progressions one gets used to after (at the latest) two flower kings records. Without analyzing the lasting 56 minutes of this album any further I can only say that it stays in this compositional style, yes, floyd and Genesis influenced of course, and displays a great variation of beautiful themes that one really has to take the time to digest. The songs tend to be rather long (which is necessary in this case and does not bore) with the exception of 'Vi Lever Här' and ' Spar Av Var Tid' which are quieter songs with a more poppy approach. The musicianship is top notch though at times I was missing more original bass lines and a louder bass in the production wouldn't have hurt either but these are in my opinion the only critical aspects .

Listen to this album. It's worth it.