FRAMTIDEN ÄR ETT SVÄVANDE SKEPP, FÖRANKRAT I FORNTIDEN

The music begins off a bit on the dreary side with lots of strings that sound slightly off key sounding like it's straight out of the 14th Century. Things pick up dramatically after 10 minutes where it starts to sound very Tuetonic and heavy with a lot of chanting in amongst the doom laden atmosphere. Electronic strangeness follows and now you realise that this ain't no ordinary fare. Barking dogs, tin whistles, creaking doors, chickens and a sitar all appear out of nowhere making this opening 19 minute track a big success in my view, although a very unusual one.

There's very good use of 'space' throughout this album with just the right number of things going on at once. The main influences appear to be folk and mediaeval. I'm losing track of the number of instruments used - now there's Jews harp, zither and tablas at play. There were six members after all - I guess they all wanted a piece ot the action, and what a bunch of dodgy reprobates they look!

'La Rotta' has some really cool high pitched electric guitar with heavy delay. 'Rings of Saturn' has large reverbed vocals with cello and percussion producing a very spooky atmosphere. 'Viriditas' is a traditional mediaeval tune but for the life of me I can't remember who composed it. I do know that 'Dead Can Dance' used it in 1990 on 'Aeon' The title track just sounds like a graveyard shrouded in fog. The two bonus tracks fit nicely with the original album, unfortunately the recording quality is pretty crumby.

The only comparisons I can think of are 'International Harvester', bits of 'Archimedes Badkar' or some of the stranger parts of Floyd's 'Ummagumma'

I don't like handing out 5 stars willy-nilly, it nullifies your credibility as a reviewer but this really is fully deserving and clearly is a masterpiece of its genre. Timeless, undated and highly original. What a great band!

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