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THE CLOSING CHRONICLES

Nightingale

Progressive Metal


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Nightingale The Closing Chronicles album cover
3.42 | 42 ratings | 6 reviews | 19% 5 stars

Good, but non-essential

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Studio Album, released in 1996

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Deep Inside of Nowhere (7:12)
2. Revival (4:24)
3. Thoughts from a Stolen Soul (9:00)
4. So Long (Still I Wonder) (4:47)
5. Steal the Moon (3:17)
6. Intermezzo (4:22)
7. Alive Again (9:26)

Total Time 42:28

Line-up / Musicians

- Dan Swanö / guitars, vocals, keyboards, drums
- Tom Nouga / bass, guitars, keyboards

Releases information

CD Black Mark #90 (1996)

Thanks to useful_idiot for the addition
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NIGHTINGALE The Closing Chronicles ratings distribution


3.42
(42 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(19%)
19%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(52%)
52%
Good, but non-essential (19%)
19%
Collectors/fans only (7%)
7%
Poor. Only for completionists (2%)
2%

NIGHTINGALE The Closing Chronicles reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars The second album from Nightingale called The Closing Chronicles are a bit different when you compare it to Nightingale´s debut album The Breathing Shadow. Gone are the goth rock influences from the debut and what we have left is an excellent neo prog/ symphonic prog album. Forget that this album is in the progressive metal catagory here on Prog Archives because there are only slight metal tendencies on The Closing Chronicles. I think The Breathing Shadow was a really good album and gave it a small 4 star rating, but with The Closing Chronicles Nightingale has made an even better album.

The music is inspired by neo prog legends like Marillion, IQ and Pallas, but it´s a bit darker in sound and mood which is probably due to Dan Swanö´s Death metal background. There are beautiful vocal melodies and instrumentation throughout the album and songs like Deep Inside of Nowhere, Revival, the very progressive Thoughts From a Stolen Soul and the closing epic Alive Again are all beautiful examples of Nightingale´s magic. Steal the Moon is a bit of a rocker and great for the diversity of the album. So Long ( Still I Wonder) and Intermezzo are ballad type songs but of the type that never gets cheesy. Note the beautiful keyboard and guitar riffs throughout the album. Especially people into darker neo prog should be able to find pleasure here.

Dan Swanö still plays just about everything on the album, but gets help from his brother Tom Nouga on additional guitar, keyboards and bass. I´m not sure but I think it is Tom who plays the melodic solos on the album. One of the objections people had about the debut was the programmed drums and here on The Closing Chronicles Dan Swanö has chosen to play the drums himself. Dan isn´t the best drummer in the whole world but he does a nice job here.

The production is a bit better than on the debut but it´s still low budget. Some might be turned off by this but judge yourself.

I´ve had this album for many years and still enjoy it every time I listen to it. I consider this to be the best Nightingale album and one of the best albums ever to feature Dan Swanö. 4 stars is a matter of course for this excellent album. Highly recommendable.

Review by Mellotron Storm
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars On NIGHTINGALE's second album Dan Swano gets some help from Tom Nouga who plays bass and adds some guitar and keyboards. He also wrote one track and helped out on a couple of others. Oh, and he also produced this recording. Dan Swano did it all on the debut. I'm in the minority I know, but I prefer the more Gothic sounding debut. The guitar is more out front on that one too, and there is an eighties flavour to it that appeals to me. Less keys too. Anyway I agree with UMUR that it's a small four stars, so I give this one 3.5 stars.

"Deep Inside Of Nowhere" opens with keys as vocals join in. It sounds like flute 1 1/2 minutes in in this melancholic intro. It's more powerful 2 minutes in. Then it changes with spoken vocals followed by full sound with vocals, drums and guitar. Tasteful guitar 5 minutes in. "Revival" opens with some nice heavy guitar then it settles with vocals quickly. Contrasts continue. Good song. "Thoughts From A Stolen Soul" opens with some atmosphere as almost spoken vocals join in. The guitar starts to lead 1 1/2 minutes in. It picks up a minute later. The tempo continues to change. Organ before 7 minutes as the guitar follows. Nice. Vocals are back 8 minutes in.

"So Long (Still I Wonder)" features synths, bass and reserved vocals early. Guitar follows tastefully. Drums after 2 1/2 minutes when the vocals stop. The guitar solos as well here. It's fuller with vocals a minute later. "Steal The Moon" opens with bass and kicks in quickly. Guitar solo 2 minutes in followed by organ. "Intermezzo" is kind of dark with keyboards and almost spoken vocals. "Alive Again" opens with keyboards and synths as vocals join in right away. Drums too.The focus is on the vocals though as usual. It sounds better after 3 1/2 minutes. In fact the best part of the album by far is from this point to the end of this song.That's six minutes worth. Deep bass to start and I like the guitar too.

A good album with perhaps better compositions than the debut, but to my ears it doesn't sound as good as their first record.

Review by Bonnek
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars Nightingale's second album shows a considerable growth since the debut. Dan Swanö got assisted by his brother Tom Nouga and all songs now feature live drums from Swanö. These changes led to an album that is less gothic in style and has a greater attention to arrangement, musicality and composition.

The opening track for instance has a decidedly proggy start, with a dramatic piano theme, flutes and strong vocal melodies. On the epic highlights Thoughts From A Stolen Soul and Alive Again, Nightingale really succeed in adding a darker shade to neo-prog. It gives them an original profile in this industrious scene. My favourite of the album would be the gloomy beauty of Intermezzo, featuring nothing but a few solemn keyboard chords and Swanö's vocals that are simultaneously warm, calm, melodious and touching. A rare combination. Neo-prog usually lacks vocalists with pose and punch for me. But with an excellent vocalist as Dan Swanö it can indeed turn out tasty and soulful.

All these elements make this into a decidedly more professional and progressive album then the debut. But is it also better?

Opinions are divided. The current verdict of the legions of Nightingale fans on PA balance each other out: one vote in favour of the debut and one in favour of The Closing Chronicles. For me it's always been the debut. Clumsy as it sometimes sounds, its dark energy has an irresistible charm, one that I only find back here on the two 9 minute songs and on Intermezzo.

In just a year Nightingale evolved from a goth project with proggy undertones into a melodious neo-prog band with only Swanö's warm gloomy baritone as a remaining goth feature. The result is different but still unique and solid. A recommended listen. 3.5 stars

Review by Marty McFly
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars At first I thought that there's something bad with my hearing. And even more with my genre distinction, because I simply hear Neo Prog in this music. OK, they stopped being goth and combinet Neo with Prog Metal and I say: Why not, if it's possible (album is out for many years, it works), then it's alright. And this fact again shows how thin can be line between certain genres.

Tracks are melodic, after all, this album I know because of recommendation I was given in proper thread on forums (and I'm so keen on suggestions that I go first check my collection if I already has this album or not - I'm still not so good to remember them all). Two man band (I suppose they don't go touring.

Except borderline cases of PM / Neo (more on Neo side), there is something like Rock song (however with keyboards flavour) Steal the Moon which is short, but serves its purpose. However Intermezzo is disappointment. Purely narrative tracks without anything musical to offer. If it's intro, it's 1)quite long one 2)not so good one. And Alive Again is better again.

4(-), let's just overlook it's classified as Prog Metal, OK ? For Prog's sake.

EDIT July 2010 - not that bad, added + 0.5.

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars Nightingale seems to have been conceived as a side-project for Dan Swano to get out all the musical ideas he wants to play with which don't fit his main projects; the first Nightigale album, The Breathing Shadow, is reportedly a mildly proggy goth rock album, whereas this time around the goth influence is restricted more or less solely to Swano's vocal delivery. Musically speaking, the rest of The Closing Chronicles is a sort of light prog metal which goes easy on the progginess - there's just enough mainstream prog metal motifs to convince me that the album hasn't been misfiled, but not enough to really satisfy fans who like their prog metal to be really, really proggy - there isn't any technical pyrotechnics to the extent that you'd get even on a Dream Theater album from around this period. For my part, though I'm not into progginess for its own sake, the album seems to be rather half-baked to me - as though it's a collection of ideas which weren't just not stylistically appropriate for Edge of Sanity, but also just plain weren't good enough.

Latest members reviews

4 stars Nightingale's 'The Closing Chronicles' is an album where you get two Swano's for the price of one! That's right, in this album the now legendary Dan Swano teamed up with his brother, Dag Swano, to explore their love for gothic-tinged progressive rock in this rather obscure record from the mid-90 ... (read more)

Report this review (#1435180) | Posted by AndyJ | Sunday, July 5, 2015 | Review Permanlink

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