ALIAS DRIVKRAFT

Here's another obscure Finnish prog band, the only Swedish speaking one that I have come across this far besides Opus Symbiosis. Also the lyrics on this album (and the next one) are in Swedish whereas their debut was sung in English. That's not a problem per se - even though I hated the language back in school - but unfortunately the uninteresting vocals are heavily present in the music. The male vocalist has an 'unprofessional', honest and amateurish style common in folk music, which this music isn't otherwise all the time (to some extent definitely, even including appearances of bouzouki and violin). It is a mixture of vocal-oriented pop and retro-sounding prog. The progness lies mostly in rhythmic complexity and versatile arrangements on shorter tracks - four of them out of six. Here and there they have also instrumental sections that improve them a lot, but the joy is often interrupted by the return of chorus-repeating song structure.

The two 10-11 minute tracks are clearly the highlights and they notably increase the progressivity. 'Utbränd' may have a slight sense of uncoherence but it has some very nice sections, featuring a female background vocalist (why not more on the whole album?). Electric guitar is a central instrument in the band sound. Keyboards lean nicely on the retro vintage style and the aforementioned additional instruments plus trumpet add to the colour. Hmm, this would be pretty interesting group if only the vocals didn't have so big role. Or if they had a better singer. Summa summarum: nice if you like the retro feel and folkiness, but quite forgettable in this vast prog universe.