UNTIL ALL THE GHOSTS ARE GONE

Now this is a Progressive Rock album! Great mix of styles and moods and lots of instrumental choices and stylings that are fairly fresh for Anekdoten. I guesss the eight years off tending to other projects served Nicklas, Ana Sofia, Jan Erik and Peter well. 1. "Shooting Star" (10:10) opens deceptively quietly for what is to follow. A hard driving album with some organ and lead guitar stylings that remind me of URIAH HEEP-era Ken Hensley and BLUE OYSTER CULT's "Buck Dharma" Roeser and even a little of TRAFFIC-era Steve Winwood and NEKTAR's Roye Albrighton. Definitely one of the best long-play prog songs of the year and one of the best songs overall! Depsite the awesome mood and key changes, this song maintains its hard driving force throughout the entire ten minutes. I can never believe how quickly this song plays! Just awesome energy! (10/10)

2. "Get Out Alive" (7:32) opens with what I call their signature "oppressive heavy-happiness." While driving us into despair and doom Anekdoten's music somehow maintains an upbeat,"happy" feel to it. The band just can't go full-out doomer. Devil may care, they must love the music too much. The vocals and doomer lyrics are somehow quite fitting for the music and yet I love how they feel secondary to the heavy (and light--from the sixth minute on) instrumental parts. Nice Frippertronics in the fifth minute. That one note Nicklas bends up and then down is so cool! Awesome song. (10/10)

3. "If It All Comes Down to You" (5:52) Melllotron drenched with CRHIS REA-like lead guitar riffs playing tantalizingly over the top, this song is just gorgeous and very jazzy--almost in MOTORPSYCHO or THE AMAZING territory. The constant background 'tron and Theo Travis flute play are awesome but it's Nicklas's delicate guitar play and the background tuned percussion (xylophone?) that make this song for me. (10/10)

4. "Writing on the Wall" (9:03) opens with another familiar Anekdoten opening and settles into a structure not unlike their masterpiece "Hole"--that is, until the lead vocal establishes its surprisingly light melody. An especially heavy subject matter is treated rather lightly, almost happily, for sure lackadaisically as if in complete resignation to the belief that there is absolutely nothing to be done. Perhaps the weakest song on the album, it is still a pretty good song. Some nice drum and guitar work in the middle over Ana Sofia's awesome chord progression of the Mellotron foundation. The delicate guitar and synth "raindrops" interlude section is very KING CRIMSON-esque before bursting back into a two minute, two-part outro with some awesome REINE FISKE-like guitar soloing. (8/10)

5. "Until All the Ghosts Are Gone" (5:07) opens with full band, some nice guitar work, and more of Theo Travis' awesome flute (and saxophone) work. The vocal feels and sounds a bit too much like older Anekdoten, but the acoustic and electronic interplay is awesome throughout. between acoustic and electric guitars, mellow drum play, multiple keyboards and even some harmonized vocals. Acoustic and electric guitars, mellow drum play, multiple keyboards, beautiful flute play, and even some harmonized vocals for the repetition of the catchy final lyric, "Praying that it will work out ok" is really nice. (9/10)

6. "Our Days Are Numbered" (8:36) is an instrumental with a familiar Anekdoten feel, driving acoustic drums with bass, electric guitar and keyboards weaving with and around each other in and out of synchrony and from collective play of the melody to weaving into harmony structures. Return of Nicklas' new "Buck Dharma" guitar play preempts a brief polyphonic section before all music drops away for bass and echoed sax notes and riffs float around the background. The band gradually builds back its volume and full presence until at 6:28 Theo Travis' saxophone screeches out some awesome notes to signal the beginning of a section in which there is a kind of gradual whole band climb until at 8:15 it all comes to a head for the finale. Another gem! (9/10)

I don't feel as positively about any previous Anekdoten studio album as I do about this one. Until All the Ghosts Are Gone deserves five stars all the way. A masterpiece of progressive rock music that is definitely a candidate for Album of the Year!