EPILOG

After enjoying the band's previous effort and later finding out that its followup release was an all instrumental album, I wasted no time and got myself both Epilog and the live album Buried Alive pretty much the next day!

Listening to this album for only a few times, I pretty much shelved the album for a few years without even once being remotely interested in picking it up again and playing even one or two tracks off it. This is quite surprising since I've been playing Hybris quite regularly during that same period. The reason for this had to do with my overall lack of appreciation for the direction that Änglagård have been going for with this album. The overall sound is much darker and much more atmospheric than its predecessor and the melodies, that eventually do turn up, are just not as memorable.

In a way, this album is a very accurate representation of the dark and gloomy conditions that fall upon Sweden every autumn and winter seasons, so having experienced it first-hand is enough for me without wanting to hear it in an album format! I'm also a bit disappointed about the mixing of the album where sound often shifts from very subtle, low-key, keyboard moments to the full band instrumental sections and the volume levels between the two are just too extreme for me to handle even during the mere 40-something minutes playtime span.

I'm actually very surprised about such a huge reaction shift of mine from the band's debut to Epilog. While I consider Hybris to be a very competent release that I rank highly in my collection, Epilog is pretty much on the other side of all that spectrum. I will give it a slight nod of a good, but non-essential rating because I believe that some fans of the debut album might enjoy this release but otherwise it's pretty much a collectors/fans only release.

***** star songs: Prolog (2:00) Saknadens Fullhet (2:00)

**** star songs: Höstsejd (15:32) Rösten (0:14)

*** star songs: Skogsranden (10:48) Sista Somrar (13:10)