ÁGÆTIS BYRJUN

Call it a blasphemy, a blindness or whatever, but I see little difference between SR's debut and AB. They even follow the same scheme (intro ambiences for 15 minutes or so - couple of songs - long ambience in the middle - couple of songs again, including the eponymous one). Yep, they've matured in songwriting. Yeah, there are some nice melodies and enjoyable tunes, but for me AB says nothing really - apart from almost excellent ( ) and enjoyable ''Takk...''. But hey, could the eponymous track be a bit shorter? I'd definitely enjoy it better. Anyway, while ''Von'' represented dark side of SR and had 1.5 from me (rounded to 2), AB gets 2.5 for its lighter side ...but again rounded to 2 due to massive disappointment - I thought this is really a Masterpiece, but I got the same stuff again, a little re-worked and improved though. If you're a SR newbie, begin with ''Heima'' DVD or ( ) to know SR from a better side