ANGLAGARD

After nearly two decades , Anglagard still can really impress. "Viljans Oga" is an excellent album, it has the same quality of "Epilog" and is almost comparable to "Hybris", which in my opinion remains their unsurpassed masterpiece.

It is a totally instrumental album with four long compositions that recall the style of the great masters of '70s progressive; influences of King Crimson, Genesis and Yes are evident, as always, but this time the songs reminds me very much the style of Magma and other experimental jazz-rock band from Canterbury (Soft Machine, Henry Cow, Hatfield And The North).

The song structure is extremely complex, even more than in the previous albums. It is a very difficult album to digest and you may not like it at first listen; after three or four listening, however, emerges the real value of masterpieces as Sorgmantel (full of virtuosity and jazz-oriented, with a great crescendo in the central section, around minute 7) and Snardom (the second half of the song is amazing, with a beautiful romantic theme that closely resembles the Italian progressive and PFM in particular).

There are incredible rhythmic variation (the work of Mattias Olsson on drums is really breathtaking), romantic atmosphere with mellotron, cello and flute in evidence, and finally the hardest moments, that are very reminiscent of King Crimson in the Fripp-Wetton-Bruford era.

Needless to say, this is a must-have album, not only if you are a great fan of this band. Despite some short drop in quality here and there (sometimes the technical and spectacular virtuosity causes a little coldness), all the songs are interesting. It is one of those albums that I always doubt whether to assign a rating of four or five stars (a really 4,5 stars).

Final rating: 8/10.

Best song: Sorgmantel

The album contains four long tracks and I can't pick a favourite of these tracks. Every has their own beauty and gives the listener some time of thinking and musically journey. The pieces are: "Längtans klocka", "Sorgmantel", "Snårdom" and "Ur vilande" all of them fantastic music. What so amazing in this music is the melodical flute wandering and it is also very melodical, strong and melancholic. It throws us back to the seventies without being nostalgic. In the guitar you can hear King Crimson but the feeling is more of Camel but more advanced arrangements. It is very strong music without a fixed place in time and space. I am convinced people will listen to Änglagård in the far future. The audio quality is perfect and you can relisten to this many times without getting bored. The lp version has one song on every side (a double lp) but you have to play them with single speed. Very dynamic music.

It's not a disc I would recommend to someone unused to prog rock but for us prog nerds this is sweat as candy. This music is very melodical and very pretentious, exactly what it shuld be to please me.

A Strong Return.

After nearly twenty years, cult Prog Rock band Anglagard return with their third album, "Viljans Oga". Their debut album "Hybris", released in 1992, is already considered a major classic in the realm of Progressive Rock, and "Epilog" is a decent following to the masterpiece. The high anticipation of "Viljans Oga", as a consequence, was pretty understandable, and at its release, the album was immensely praised by fans. And it is for a reason; the band manages to keep the quality stakes high even after twenty years, by delivering another fantastic, complex, and challenging record.

Anglagard deliver to the public exactly what a fan might expect they'd deliver: an LP with extremely refined instrumentation, breathtaking musicianship, and excellent production. All four songs are structured to near perfection, and their songwriting skills haven't lost their power either. But it's in the executing and the planning where the band succeeds in the most, despite the fact that we're still dealing with great songwriters here. There is a noticeable difference on "Viljans Oga", and that is the absence of vocals. Although it would have been nice to hear at least a little bit of singing, to give more heterogeneity to the flow of the music, there really isn't a spot on the album where they could have been inserted, which means that in a way, their decision was a wise one. If there is one gripe that could have been fixed, that would have been the length of the whole thing: an hour for this kind of music seems to be a little too much, and there some parts in these four songs that could have been cut out, although all of the parts are pure gold.

"Viljans Oga" can't help but being a great album, perhaps not a la par with an album such as "Hybris", (considering that for accomplishing a full blown masterpiece, they simply needed to shorten the album and make the songs a bit more different from one another) but nevertheless a release worth revisiting again and again, because of its impeccable musicianship and fantastic songwriting.

But by the early 90's the foundation of the Internet was gaining popularity, and it was on one of those text based discussion groups someone informed me of this new fantastic band from Sweden that would restore my faith in the prog scene. And looking back, it signalled the emergence of Scandinavia as the up and coming center of the new prog universe.

The opening of Jordrök gives the impressing that Anglagard is going to be a dark chamber rock band, in the vein of Univers Zero. But once the full band joins in, the music becomes a fabulous blend of the classic seventies era prog masters. There is the darkness of King Crimson (and the Mellotrons), the soaring vocals and complex virtuosity of Yes, some nods to Genesis in keyboard and vocal passages, and even (as shown in the bonus track on later editions) the intricate arrangements of Gentle Giant.

Aside from the fact that this album refreshed my enthusiasm for progressive rock, it is a nearly perfect endeavor.

When a band enters into a long sabbatical after two excellent albums, their early releases become some sort of legend that nobody believes can be re-created, but when that same band announces a reunion after almost two decades, the fans expect more of the same...Well as I said before, Viljans Öga is not Hybris, doesn't sound similar or will take the audience by surprise as the unexpected debut did, but the quality and the beauty that made of ÄNGLAGÅRD the icon of the 90's is still there, surely less naive and daring (the musicians have matured) but the most important thing to take in consideration is that the magic is still there.

It's obvious for me that the lack of vocals affected my initial appreciation, despite the critics, the voice of Tord Lindman brought something especial and unique...but hey, we can't have everything they are back after 18 years, and also that mystic blend of dissonances, complex melodies and display of virtuosity makes of Viljans Öga the perfect complement for their already fantastic discography.

In the 90's ÄNGLAGÅRD was a daring band, they took all the existing risks, they jumped in the pool before checking if there was water in it because they were in their teen years or early twenties, today they are in their mid-thirties and seem to think more what their next move will be, but the style is the same, the KING CRIMSON inspired dissonances still surprised me and their melodies still reminded me of the dark and cold afternoons in Scandinavia, they are the same band but they have grown, and that is good.

What haven't changed at all is their rejection for mainstream, the shortest track has 12:06 minutes and the complexity is everywhere, ÄNGLAGÅRD sounds as well as any 70's iconic band, but with the advantage that they don't depend on the limits of the vinyl format, so they were able to release a 57 minutes album with the material they had originally created, no need to add fillers in order to reach the 90 minutes of a double Long Play or delete good sections to fit in a 45 minutes limit, so every second of Viljans Öga expresses the full talent of the band.

The band members have developed and their skills are more evident, but the greatest surprise for me was Anna Holmgren, who left that sweet innocent and melodic flute in the 90's to take more risks, surprisingly she doesn't provide the soft folksy relax anymore, she's part of the delightful aggression to the senses that the band wants to transmit us, now ÄNGLAGÅRD doesn't let us rest, they attack us from start to end with radical changes and elaborate passages that any Progressive Rock fan loves.

I won't talk about the tracks individually, it would be futile, because Viljans Öga has to be heard as a complete work, but if you ask me for my favorite one I would dare to mention the epic Snårdom and the closer Langtans Klocka, both are simply amazing and left me speechless.

As usual when reviewing an ÄNGLAGÅRD album, I have no problem with the ratings, as somebody said before Viljans Öga is full of "sudden stops, non-fluid transitions and chaotic feel", and that's why I love it, so in my opinion deserves no less than 5 solid stars. I only hope they don't make us wait another 18 years for a new album.

Along with Felicité Thosz by MAGMA and Genesis Revisited II by STEVE HACKETT, the best release of this fertile 2012.

I must admit Anglagard's previous albums have never done much for me; their focus on technical musicianship could never distract from their failure to come up with anything I found remotely memorable. And while their best album so far, "Viljans öga" is an album that goes with a near dazzling perfection through the prog motions, but it is also one that shows a stunning disinterest for song coherence and purpose. They may have perfectly assembled all the ingredients needed in order to produce a mix of vintage GENESIS and YES, but there are not two bars of music here with as much of a hint of the songwriting mastership of those bands. Really, if this is a masterpiece of Prog then how do I rate "The Musical Box" and "Siberian Kathru"?

Just like their previous album "Epilog", "Viljans öga" is entirely instrumental. On both albums this seems motivated by lack of a decent singer rather then by artistic choice, and it certainly doesn't help to make the tracks distinguishable from one another. All song section segue into one another whitout ever really grabbing my attention, and less then 5 minutes into any of these long compositions the music simply fades to the background, failing to capture my ear.

Concluding, this isn't at all bad as background music, but this is far removed from the demanding and distressing Prog of the bands they seek to copy. Nice enough and not too cheesy, but nothing that urged me return to it a lot in the last half year.

Their music is not easy to come by and I had not heard Hybris until I went onto You Tube to find out what they were about and hear why it sits at # 11 in the PA all time chart (but surely never as good as such classic albums as Larks Tongues in Aspic, Fragile or Nursery Cryme which are below it). Yes it's excellent but Viljans Oga is much better in my opinion. It is though a shame Hybris is unavailable. There are second hand copies on Amazon going for '23 or more and I am not paying that. Surely the band are missing out here as many would wish to own a copy of that album. Even Viljans Oga is not easy or cheap to buy, I would love it on vinyl but at '51.99 no way. This must be holding them back a little. Anyway here are my views on the album itself.

T1 Ur Vilande: Starting with some lovely pastoral flute then track builds into the main theme and great sounding mellotron, an old classic sound but sounding so fresh here. The flute and guitar combine to play the theme again ebbing and flowing in and out of the piece. From 11:00 in it takes another step up and the main theme returns and more mellotron and guitar work. This is Music of classical structure and complexity. They are obviously very highly skilled musicians and just hearing this opening track you know you are listening to prog of the highest quality.

T2 Sorgmantel: Starts off as Chamber rock, much like. They play such lovely melodies that keep you interested throughout, you can never guess what is coming next. Love the bass line from 7.45 in with elements of the main tune on mellotron coming back in joined by the guitar and then the whole ensemble taking to the piece to a wonderful climax. Then pulling back to the lovely flute only to build up again, and ending gently' fantastic stuff.

T3 Snardom: My favourite track and top track of 2012 so far too. So much going on here with some great ensemble playing and I can't get the guitar out of head from 7' in'such a classic soaring lead line tune and then even better at 13:50 taking the song to fantastic finish. Brilliant!

T4 Langtans Klocka: Gentle flute intro again. The use of flute is so good in their music, especially in this track. This leads into more complex Gentle Giant style moments and great guitar lines. Then a clarinet (I guess)brings in an a quirky tune sounding like a village band complete with vibes, this then gets a bit chaotic before the guitar pulls it all back again and the vibes come back in to end the track gently .. 'amazing stuff. As said this has not been easy to review, but I do know I really love it so much and with each listen I get more out of it. At about a dozen plays it is still gripping me. Off to play it again now, then again and'..

What a pity that the album lacks occasional vocals, that (although in Swedish) had spiced, in such special way, previous two albums! Otherwise musically - nothing new under the Sun: significant bass guitar, sharp guitar riffs, all slightly tinged with sound of Mellotron and flute. In short, all the good things already known from the 70´s by bands like King Crimson, especially their Wetton period.

Their consistent (though somewhat amusing) clinging to the Swedish names of tracks, including the specific diacritics, adds to the band on mysteriousness. The best composition is for me without a doubt "Snårdom" with a bloody heavy guitar riff and quite well memorable tune, secondly the final "Längtans Klocka", containing a very similar melody as the theme song to miniseries "The Mysterious Island" after Verne from 1973, which I really had adored as a child. Quite acceptable is an introductory track "Ur Vilande" and as the weakest link seems to be the second "Sorgmantel".

All in all: 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. Non-essential, non-groundbreaking, but still excellent comeback of this somewhat enigmatic band.

Now, it's time to do the "sad pahty poopah" impersonation. My only problem with Hybris is not with what is missing ('cause nothing seems to be), but with what IS there. The vocals. There, I said it.

The Änglagård's singing talents aren't really a close match for their virtuoso instrumental capabilities. Besides, for some of those who aren't blessed with Scandinavian heritage, the lyrics in Swedish - instead of adding an extra dimension to the compositions - can be more of a distraction, like 'why are those people talking when I am trying to listen to the music, and what the heck are they talking about?'

Perhaps, it's just my uncontrollable fear of getting into an embarrassing situation, so eloquently depicted in the infamous Soesman Language Institute commercial. If you want to Google it up, do make sure there are no minors and/or folks who disapprove of inappropriate language next to your computer :)

Nevertheless, I am glad to assign 5 stars to this album, even though it's half a notch "lower" than Viljans Öga on my chart.

An unexpected byproduct of having listened to Hybris a few times: a re-assessment of Steven Wilson's recent efforts. I thought GFD was pretty great, and originally rated it with 5 stars, but now I realize (with a degree of indignation) that 50% of GFD's 80' is time-stretching techniques, so it's down to 3 stars.