HINTERLAND

I bought Hinterland in 2007 after hearing the description of the band and I look back at it and it hadn't held as well as Rites at Dawn and From Silence to Somewhere, and now Dwellers of the Deep (which might be a bit premature as it barely came out as of typing, I'm pretty certain it's their crowning achievement as it truly blew me away). Hinterland shows potential but the flaws are a bit obvious. For one thing Tony Johannessen's overwrought vocals are hard to take in. I'm glad he was replaced by Andreas Prestmo as his voice is much more pleasant and improved the band greatly. The other flaw is it's frequently overlong with the title track the most guilty culprit. Sure even that one has great ideas but it's clear the band hasn't figure out how to make their ideas more cohesive. The approach is more bombastic throughout than later releases. Änglagård was the frequent comparison. It even started off similar to Epilog with "Serenade for 1652". Lars Fredrik Frøislie piles it thick with analog keyboards of all sorts, no analog modeling or VST-plugins. Meaning a real Mellotron M400 was used and same for Hammond organ and Minimoog. Other than Änglagård I also detect some ELP and Gentle Giant moves and I almost forgot that gliding tron quote from King Crimson's "Epitaph" on the title track.

As stated, a promising album but it's clear that Rites at Dawn, From Silence to Somewhere and Dwellers of the Deep are superior in every way so go for those first before coming here.