HYBRIS

Yes, this album is regressive. So what? Forget that and enjoy the music. "Hybris" is an essential piece of 90's Swedish symphonic prog. That's right, 90's. The sound is of course completely 70's, and the main reason for this is that Anglagard refused to use any post-70's instruments when recording "Hybris."

The music is based on strong melodies, created by the lively guitar sound, the beautiful flute and the impressive analog-keyboard arsenal, including Mellotron, Moog and such. I don't understand that much of the lyrics, but I think the vocals fit and Tord Lindman has a voice pleasant enough for my ear. Pretty much everything in the music is just screaming out 70's symphonic prog, the album almost seems like a Genesis/Yes tribute. It's pretty obvious that these guys are obsessed with classic prog.

The songwriting is very skilled. The album consists of 4 long tracks, which all are based on the same thing; primarily instrumental, packed with the aforementioned melodies; a delightful dialogue between the different instruments, constantly changing from mindblowing hard-rocking parts to soothing and mellow acoustic parts in a blink of an eye, every now and then interrupted by the vocals.

I have nothing negative to say about the musicianship either. Each member of the band, although very young at the time, handle their instruments nearly as skillfully as their idols from the past. It seems this Swedish band really had the flame burning in their hearts and they just went for it. And truly, they succeeded and created an absolute masterpiece, an album to give new hope for a new generation of prog musicians and infinite amounts of delight for proggers around the world.

I didn't even stop to think when I gave a rating for this one; 5 stars.