SILENCE OF ANOTHER KIND

Like Anekdoten, in my opinion this Swedish band has grown better and better with time, as their musical style has matured during the group's evolvement. The album is opened by song "Shame", which lyrics criticize directly the foreign policy of the world's leading military power. Via my nihilism, I'm not so convinced how much with such activisms can be achieved, but the song itself is truly fabulous, unlike my nihilism. The music creates a very powerful oppressive feeling of distress still without being heavy metal. I would describe it as a bit more electronic version of the current stuff done by Anekdoten, being artistic and having beautiful moods, consisting professional and imaginative arrangements and using tasty vintage sounds like Mellotrons along with more contemporary sounds. There is an interesting section here, where instead of an instrument an extracts of political TV speech is being used as the solo instrument.

"Your Misery" moves then to more slower melancholic directions. There are some interesting carefully crafted sonic treatments of vocals and instrumentations to be heard here, making this a rewarding album if listened with loud volume through good stereos. Along with the following "Falling" it is evident, that exceptional melodies are a true trademark of this group. This is not very difficult music to be listened, so there should be lots of potential in the markets of accessible but independent music for this album. Though the rhythms are not very exotic, the drummer treats them imaginatively and pleasantly. I also believe that Simon Reynolds' characterization of post-rock finds relevance on this music, though the rhythm section builds these songs as more common rock song structures.

"Still Standing" opens with an electronic experimental intro, a feature which was established on their previous "Kallocain" album. This song doesn't deviate from the strong depressing line of this release. Also the strong verses and the contrasts of calmer instrumentations and stronger orchestral like patterns are very beautiful. "Is That All?" is the first song having a delightful feeling instead of anxiety, being a very fragile and beautiful Major key ballad with again strong verse. The following "Procession of Fools" is then just a short and weird soundscape, this didn't quite open to me, but it didn't last very long either.

"There Will Be No Miracles" sounds most conventional rock song of the tracks of this record, resembling some grunge tunes of the 1990's. But there are some experimental solutions here too, for example I think that the sound of playing the guitar frets were recorded with a separate microphone to get a strong sound of touching the strings. Also the verse is the most powerful of here with crunchy fuzzed guitar licks. "Not A Sound" fusions elements of Scandinavian folk music with modern electronic sounds, and returns to the melancholic despair moods. I must admire the bands talent to summon up these chorus melodies, and it's wonderful that these gifts are used to produce artistic music instead of more profitable commercial music products. The end of the song treats the chorus in a stronger manner, and an electronic soundscape carrying the album title ends this fabulous CD.

This record brings yet another wonderful album to the family of depressed Swedish Mellotron driven records, already containing LP's of Anekdoten, Landberk, Morte Macabre and Opeth's "Damnation". They truly reflect the inner vision which I have sawn, and thus the listening of these records has enforced my awareness and affected my spiritual inner currents. Later I realized that in order to experience the outer world more purely, it would be necessary to swim away from these introvert currents to new foreign tides. It is yet possible to return time to time these charming dramatic things, but escape constant wallowing on the same litters, how comfortable they should ever be.