HYBRIS

Usually I'm very sceptic to progressive rock with the main goal to recreate the music of the 70s with todays sound quality, the result is more than often horrific and annoying. �nglagård is one of the few exceptions I know of bands succeeding to create "classic" prog with a modern touch (not to modern, though) and actually make something interesting from it. With a lot of Crimson blended with some classic swedish melancholy their "Hybris" is a modern classic and a fine example on how great progressive rock is to be done!

The sound of first song "Jordrök" is raw, mysterious and crazy with all the melodies colliding into each other and a drummer going completely mental over his drum kit. It goes through all this different phases, from the scary piano opening to something absolutely wild and then back to slow and calm. It goes on like that for eleven minutes without losing the listener for a second. Its a fantastic and beautiful mess!

I think all the songs have pretty much the same characteristics (and I don't mind at all), wild and crazy, slow and beautiful, all in one. Howling guitars, flutes and bass playing that reminds you a little of Yes. Drummer Mattias Olsson sound a lot like Bill Bruford at times, which adds an extra dimension of complexity to the songs. Its as close to perfection as you get. Also Hybris got one of the best closing tracks I know, "Kung Bore" is so epic it almost makes you faint in the end!

So why four stars? Why not five? Its with a great deal of sadness I tell you that I absolutely hate the vocals on the album, its terrible! I dont really know if its the singer or the vocal melody, but there is something about it that just doesn't work for me, it just sounds so awkward, like the singer doesn't really wants to sing. Im from sweden, so I know the texts aren't that good, but I think its more the way the singing sounds. But I don't know if Hybris would have been that good without any song at all either, instrumental music is hard to write. The first song is of course instrumental, but for an whole album?

I can't end this review like that, because it IS an awesome album and deserves better. The music is as good as it gets, overblown and probably too majestic for most people, but thats the point with progressive rock! And I got to say (except from the vocals) �nglagård nails it big time!