SATTYG

It takes me about one minut into the first song before I realise this is going to be a great album. Kaipa keeps making great progressive rock, with a sound based in the 70s but with all the modern hallmarks. The music is in the same vein as previous Kaipa albums with lots of folk music, some small jazzy parts but mostly with melodic progressive rock. If you have bought a Kaipa album for the last ten years you know what you're in for. The musicians involved are nothing but excellent, Hans Lundin is a great keyboardplayer but also the contributions from Per Nilsson (guitars), Morgan Ågren (drums) and Jonas Reingold (bass) are of high quality.

Both of the two singers keep delivering, I specially like Alleena Gibsons voice, she can give a song that special extra that lifts it from good to great.

I find the album to be very guitaroriented, not heavy, but the melodic leads are mostly played with the guitar leading the song. Hans Lundins keyboards aren't as prolific on this album, but I do suspect he's using keyboard sounds that are close to the guitar sound or violin, sometimes it's hard to hear. I would have wished for a bit more keyboardoriented album.

If I were to critizise something it would be that some songs can seem to be a bit long, some would have benefited from being shortened a minute or two. I am sure the idea were not to make them longer just for the sake of it but a bit more fokus would have given a better result. Also, the cover art looks almost like the two albums before. Minor critizism.

Not as strong as Kaipas best (IMHO) album "In the wake of evolution" from 2010 but still really good. Very recommended!

First of all I have to say I am glad I am back on Prog Archives. I have tried to write reviews for a long time but I haven't reached my member zone. I am back though on last year 2015 which I feel I didn't investigate enough and I'll start with the Swedish studio group "Kaipa" which made some great albums in the seventies and have done a lot of music also in modern times. I would recommend you to listen to their earlier records, in Swedish, before you listen to the new ones. Or you don't have to choose. It's a totally new band which anchor is Hans Lundin, the keyboardist of the band.

"Sattyg"(Devil's work) is Kaipa's twelfth record and "New Kaipa's" seventh. The Swedish title tricks us listeners to believe the songs are in Swedish, but unfortunately not. The cover picture is wonderful to look at and it foreshadows heavenly music. Kaipa has the conditions to sound awesome. The musicians are very talanted. Per Nilsson, the guitarist, Morgan Ågren, the drummer, and Jonas Reingold, the bassist do a fantastic job along with Hans Lundin. They play a light and melodic symphonic rock which is very pleasant to listen to. Often they have borrowed folk themes to make the music even more holy and genuine. Kaipa though has a big problem, the music is repetitive, the lyrics seem banal and I have very hard to enjoy the vocals. Despite there are big aspects of this music I have so hard to get, the brilliant musicians and the instrumental passages nevertheless make this a good record which I will give three stars. That is an improvement from "Vittjar" which I gave two. But I really claim they should sing in Swedish, it would make it much more genuine.

Of "Sattyg's" seven songs three las very long listening time. Often, also it isn't necessary. An unnecessarily long prog songs are not good for an album. The best songs in my opinion are "A sky full of painters" also a long track which I think they managed to make quite awesome and I feels whole(7/10) and "Sattyg" a short instrumental little track with wonderful instruments. Some songs work as well: "A map of you Secret world"(but absolutely too long) (6/10), "Word of the Void" which is a very pleasant song(if you din't listen to much to the vocals)(6/10) and the last song "Without time- Beyond time"(6/10). I rate two songs lower: "Unique when we fall"(4/10) and "Screwed- upness"(4/10) which was terribly repetitive.

I recommend this record because it's obvious the musicians of this band have done a good job and the music sound special but I am not sure you will like it. Three stars(2.86)

For whatever reason, the second, modern incarnation of Kaipa didn't click for me, although I like most of modern sympho-prog that comes from Sweden. So, I didn't bother checking them beyond their first "modern" album. But for whatever reason I decided to give this album a try. Either Kaipa changed, or I did (got older? :), but I liked it from the very first listening. In fact I still like it very much even after many repeated listenings. I don't know how they did it and what they changed, but each and every element of the band's music is in the right place on this album. Vocals are excellent, especially female parts, melodies and arrangements are inventive, and I especially liked guitar solos: very tasteful. Another good thing is a good production and sound. Well, this is not "a masterpiece of modern prog", and it doesn't make any breakthrough or discover new Americas. But... this is very good piece of modern sympho-prog indeed that really deserve attention.

This Swedish symphonic prog group (dating back from the mid-seventies) plays a mixture of fusion-prog and Swedish folk. Add a layer of seventies glam-prog singing and endless lines of virtuoso fusion-metal guitar and you get the picture. This album is perfectly produced (oh boy, does it sound thick and steady) and the band is really tight, both in playing as in stylistic continuity. The talent and fiery motivation of all involved is felt throughout. I own the InsideOut 2LP and this label never lets us down with well printed vinyls and nice artwork.

Kaipa makes compositions in which the verses and the refrains serve only as a main body for the long list of themes, variations and solo's it has to offer. The folky themes sounded a bit cheesy at first, but I kind of came around and started liking them a lot. It's quite interesting how Kaipa found this natural sounding mix of fusion and folk. The male and female vocals by Gibson and Lundstrum are a bit over the top, but never disruptive of the flow of the music. Though 'Sattyg' means darkness, this album will function as a feel-good and girlfriend friendly album in collection. Kaipa doesn't seem to want to impose its seriousness on the listener - in stead offering pleasantness in a high-temp and highly technical fashion. The lead themes on keyboards sound like a distorted fuzz guitar. The 'real' electric guitars by Per Nilsson are however well distinguishable, for he is one of the genre most technically gifted players. The over- abundance of his technical yet harmonically safe solo's diminishes the impact a bit though. The last track 'Without Time - Beyond Time' could have easily been left out without damaging this otherwise excellent album.

Conclusion. This album will not impress with the soul crushing impact of its individual parts, but as a whole its extremely pleasant and easy to listen to. You have to get a sense of the fun of it all. Don't bother about the lyrics or the grander scheme of it. This is fusion- folk-prog played by the greatest the progressive genre has to offer and I liked it more then I ever would have thought. I don't expect to buy another Kaipa LP though and had I already owned more Kaipa records like this one, I probably would have never rated it with four stars.