KALLOCAIN

There are a blend of so called "new" or "modern" prog bands, carrying the hope for future days of prog. Paatos is unquestionably one of them. Partly consisting of former members of the Swedish prog combo "Landberk" they caused a fresh breeze with their debut "Timeloss", fine Retro-Prog mixed with modern influences such as trip-hop like rhythms slightly reminiscent of "Björk". Another similarity to "Björk" is Petronella Nettermalm. Her vocals are beautiful and mostly melancholic. The new album "Kallocain" offers some differences. Reine Fiske, former guitarist of "Landberk" left the band and was replaced by Peter Nylander. With him, most of the "Landberk" influences left as well; but there are still some parallels left. "Kallocain" offers yet more modern sounds, the trip-hop like rhythms in particular. The drummer and husband of Petronella, Huxflux Nettermalm offers some impressive drumming. Besides the trip-hop beats there are these extraordinary drum parts, quite heavy and fast now and again. In general the sound of "Kallocain" is quite melancholic, a lot of mellotron sounds, typical swedish. Once in a while the band breaks out of this general mood to show their heavier, as well as some very modern parts. On the whole I liked the sound of the first album better even if most of the elements are relatively similar. "Kallocain" sounds more mature but I miss the parts where the band really "goes for it" (Ending of "Hypnotique", "Quits"). There's also a limited special edition with DVD. If you want to buy this album I recommend to invest the small amount of money to get this version. You get an excerpt of a great gig in Köln/Germany wich could be seen on German TV (The show is called "Rockpalast") some time ago. You get four excellent performed songs (among them their best song IMO: "Hypnotique"). It's definitely worth the extra money.

I think that "Kallocain" is a good successor of their amazing debut. If you're searching for modern prog since you become desperate because prog seems to become extinct I recommend to check out Paatos. You will see, the situation is not as hopeless as it may seem. There are some new bands willing to keep prog alive, willing to generate a fresh breeze for the whole genre (I just want to mention "Liquid Scarlet" from Sweden). Prog is alive...