NUCLEUS

With Anekdoten's second effort, they reach to another level of sound, a lot more Avant Prog and Heavy Prog sounding and with some less noticeable King Crimson influences. "Nucleus" shows how quickly a band can reach a mature sound, even though the procedure definitely isn't completed yet. But there is no doubt saying that Anekdoten in 1995, three years after they're impressive debut, release their first masterpiece.

Whoever loved the debut is probably not going to enjoy this album as much, since it is very different: the atmosphere is a little more bizarre, the songs are veiled with paranoia and schizophrenia, especiallt in the title track.

This track in fact presents very heavy and strong bass lines, reaching only at times an hearable melody, and paranoid sounding vocals. Probably my favorite track.

"Harvest" is another weird song, with some nice and calm moments but always full of experimentation, like the bizarre sounding keyboards. Very interesting. "The Book Of Hours" is the longest song off the album. It starts very mellow, but then explodes very slowly, and in a way that really impresses me. after the one minute interlude, we have "Rubankh" a short instrumental with heavy moments and the usual crunchy bass guitar, but very interesting and with great performances by the individual musicians. "Here" is a very nice song, mellow, with some weirdness here and there, but still hearable and enjoyable. "This Far From The Sky" is just as heavy as "Rubankh" or the title track, but less appealing in my opinion. Indeed there are some appreciable passages and nice moments, but none of them can repeat the magic of the previous songs. "In Freedom" is a great closer, very calm, it pretty much has the same structure as "Here", but with less experimentation.

In conclusion, a near perfect masterpiece, a stunning work of a band that was slowly rising back in 1995. Now this band is considered one of the most important modern progressive bands, and this album is for sure one of the best modern Heavy Prog albums ever.

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