Not a CD for Stress Reduction...
Grant Colburn | Green Bay, WI | 09/09/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I'm writing this basically due to amazement that it hasn't been reviewed before. For me this is Anekdoten taking the 70's Crimson sound as far as it could go. One may argue what is the point of an album which borrows much of its style from an earlier band and in some ways I'd agree with them. However considering that King Crimson is a band which often develops a sound and then abandons it, its not like Crimson will ever sound like they did in the 70's. This CD could well be the missing album after Red. The music is unrelenting, the atmosphere bleak like a cold cloudy day in late November when all the leaves have fallen from the trees and snow is soon on its way. And just like a Crimson CD you've gotta be in the mood for music of this sort. Its gonna get ugly! But what a beautiful "ugly" it is. As anyone who knows old Crimson or Anekdoten knows, part of the flavor of the music is defined by dissonance, odd time signatures and MELLOTRONS. The complexity of the arrangements combined with the dirty raw power put this music way above the usual neo-progressive band one usually encounters. The only weak point at times for some in Anekdoten's music has been the vocals yet here the often light and sometimes almost unconfident sounding voices actually compliment the music giving the listener an almost "My God, how can I rise above the din?" feeling. It's the contrasts within the music that make the vocals work like they are fighting to the surface to be heard. After owning almost all of Anekdoten's catalog this album still is the one that grabs me the most. It may be more derivitave than their more recent albums, but its brutal beauty cannot be denied. If you like your music comforting and melodic it may not be what you are looking for, but for those moments when you want the hair to stand up on the back of your neck, its difficult to find better!"
Terrifying, beautiful refraction of Red-era King Crimson
Worgelm | United States | 04/12/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Maybe the gnarliest punk-prog opus since the acid-drenched incoherence of Amon Duul II's _Yeti_, Anekdoten strike the metaphorical blow to the temple with this alternately vicious and stunningly beautiful recording from 1995. Operating securely from planet Fripp here - though not without their own unique interpretive qualities - Anekdoten kick up a substantial racket on this album. In the process, they provide a distinctly frosty and Scandanavian counterpoint for the preceding prog revolution going on overseas in the States brought on by the likes of Dream Theater and their ilk.
The songs themselves alternate between moments of plaintive calm, to thunderous dissonance and jagged guitar work, all drenched heavily in mellotron, of which the stunning opener, "Nucleus," is the best example. I've always personally believed that the best "heavy" albums always needed its first song to be a mission statement, and this track is a doozy, propulsive from beginning to end, blending all the talents of the band into a chaotic vortex of sound highlighted by Niklas Barker's mellotron and Anna Sofi-Dahlberg's cello. The intense music neatly ties into the doe-eyed creation themes of the lyrics and suggest the terrifying wonder at the center of reality. Longer epics like "Harvest" and "Book of Hours" ebb and flow more deliberately, building astounding climaxes into the stratosphere and back down again. The most satisfying of these epics is "This Far From the Sky" which opens with a pummeling, Voivod-like riff alternating with wavering cello and textural guitar mosaics. Elsewhere "Here" offers some intriguing sonic experimentation, pushing the percussives far to the back of the mix and highlighting Jan-Erik Liljestrom's wispy vocals and Dahlberg's cello, while closer "In Freedom" ends on a reflective, jazzy note, carried softly into the sunset by the interlocking vocals of Liljestrom and Dahlberg on a sea of gorgeous strings and Mellotron. The band's been criticized often for being too slavish to their influences (they started out as a King Crimson cover band, fer chrissakes) but these tracks render that criticism somewhat specious, proving they were also evolving and trying to take those influences to new and exciting places.
Special mention has to be made for the astounding production on this disc, credited to the band with Tommy Andersson. It's a carefully-woven sonic tapestry built centrally around the rhythmic foundation of drummer Peter Nordins' kit - here recorded more like a jazz drummer - and Liljestrom's miles-thick bass tones. Organic and expansive, it renders all the melodic textures in this music perfectly, so that even when these epics are at the height of their expertly rendered cacophonies, you can literally pick every instrument from the din. It's a fat, warm, recording, infused with a real raw indie attitude, both a reference for audophiles and headbangers alike. It stands up to today's blocky, overcompressed prog-metal recordings heroically. I purchased my copy of this disc nearly a decade ago and i'll be darned if it still doesn't rule. If you ever hear some greybeard harping on the ruination of modern music via the CD format, hook them up with this one. Complete with lyrics, sinister psychedelic artwork, and a rather lavish booklet, this disc is highly, highly, recommended to anyone who likes prog or is a fan of emotionally intense music."
