THE CLOSING CHRONICLES

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.