Search - Anglagard :: Epilog

The single finest symphonic prog album in recent times

Jeffrey J.Park | Massachusetts, USA | 08/17/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I remember the buzz that swept through the prog community when this album was released by the now (sadly) defunct Swedish proggers Anglagard back in 1994. Certainly, I was not immune to the effects of this exciting development, and at the time it was my favorite rock album and Anglagard was my favorite new band. It appeared (back then at any rate) that a renaissance was being ushered in, whereby really good prog rock would once again take center stage after nearly a 20-year hiatus. Although that never did happen, this album will, in my opinion, forever remain as the single best symphonic progressive rock album released in current times (1994-present day). I also regard the album as the last gasp from a progressive rock style that all but faded away around 1976 or so.



The neat thing about Epilog is that it borrows from the past (early Genesis, 73-74 King Crimson), but also has its own unique voice. In fact, that is precisely what the best 1970s progressive rock was all about - a signature sound.



The music on the purely instrumental Epilog album is brooding, characteristically gloomy in a Swedish way, and alternates between very heavy, thunderous passages and quieter, spacey sections. The five pieces on the album include the 2'00" opening track Prolog; the 15'31" Hostejd; Skogsranden (10'47"); Sista Somrar (13'10"); and the closing track Sakandens Fullhet (1'59"). Themes are restated at specific points throughout the album, linking the five tracks. Although there are six tracks listed on the album, Rosten simply consists of 11 seconds of silence.



With respect to the lineup, Anglagard was comprised of keyboardist Thomas Johnson (Hammond organ, mini-moog, mellotron with string and voice settings, and acoustic piano); superb bassist Johan Hogberg (he used a newer-sounding and trebly six-string bass); excellent drummer Mattias Olsson; and fantastic guitarists Tord Lindman and Jonas Engdegard. Non-rock instrumentation includes flute, cello, and violin amongst other instruments. Although this album is 99% instrumental, there are some very brief and haunting female vocalese sections.



One of the most significant features of this album is the sophistication of the music itself. These guys had a good grasp on composition and really knew how to put a larger piece together - which is no small feat I might add. In terms of the level of virtuosity these guys could play bloody well, and unusual root movements, intricate time signatures, and abrupt metric shifts abound. On the other hand, they knew when (and more importantly, how) to back off and spacey, delicate sections nicely balance the heavier sections (as a warning, sometimes the change between loud:soft can be very jarring). Their pieces also show absolutely no trace of the radio-friendly pop; American arena rock; heavy metal/nu-metal; and hard rock styles that are favored by many of the current crop of "progressive" bands.



The digipak format is very nice and features excellent sound and detailed liner notes that feature a series of very gothic images, and lyrics to the songs in Swedish. Other exciting new groups that I personally enjoy fuse rock with styles such as electronica, ambient, the European avant-garde and psychedelic rock including the post rock group Sigur Ros (Iceland); Porcupine Tree (England); Ozric Tentacles (England); and Dungen (Sweden).



All in all, I would highly recommend Epilog to all prog fans old and new alike."

Beautiful progaliciousness.

Lord Chimp | Monkey World | 11/08/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"_Epilog_ is considered one of the great masterpieces of Swedish symph prog and I would personally say it's the best Swedish prog album ever made (not that I've heard them ALL, but ya know...). It used to be something of a holy grail since it was out-of-print for years. It developed a rather legendary mystique with all the praise it received, and this was compounded by the fact that no one could find a copy of the darn thing. Thankfully, it has finally been re-released (along with Anglagard's first album, _Hybris_) in a gorgeous digipak. This all-instrumental album is pure prog: instrumentation consists of fat Rickenbacker bass, lush mellotrons, percussive Hammond organs, guitars, flute, and percussion. The music is complex and epic, full of tense interaction and head-spinning time-signature changes. The band is uniformly virtuoso but there is little emphasis on individual players -- distinct solo spots are uncommon, while tricky unisons and deft interplay stand out. Sounds like an good albeit normal prog album, so what's the big deal? It's hard to say what makes _Epilog_ so magical. The recipe of fervent symph prog-cum-Scandinavian lyricism just works amazingly well when employed by this group. The music has a great sense of textural depth and rhythmic fervor rivaled by few. There is also virtually no "prog cheese" in this music, possibly due to the band's dark Scandinavian undercurrents. And the drumming of the young Mattias Ollson is simply jaw-dropping. He knows few peers in the world of prog (he also plays on the White Willow albums _Ex Tenebris_ and _Sacrament_, and also with the stunning pop band Pineforest Crunch). Most important, _Epilog_ flows beautifully (from pastoral flute & acoustic guitars to all-out juicy prog onslaughts of unmatched energy), the course of the songs always urgently forming a compelling arc of thematic connections with the inevitability of gravity. No prog collection is complete without this masterpiece. I cannot recommend it enough."