Anekdoten - [2003] Gravity (flac)

Four years after the lukewarm reception of From Within, Swedish proggers Anekdoten ? often mentioned in the same breath as countrymen ─nglagård as part of the initial wave of the 1990s prog revival ? returned with Gravity, an album that generated still more lukewarm sentiments.



It's not hard to see why: the moody, Crimson-influenced heavy symphonic prog of early Anekdoten has faded to a large extent, to be replaced by still-moody but generally straightforward material that leans as much towards alternative rock as classic prog. The move towards this sort of sound started with From Within and is taken to a new level here: much of Gravity sounds like radio-friendly rock, only with lots and lots of Mellotron providing a backing for the guitar riffing and vocals. In fact, there's so much Mellotron, especially in the loud sections and crescendoes, that I find it actually dulls some much-needed edge ? all too often, blazing guitar riffs are sublimated under a fuzzy haze of Mellotron. Also, Gravity's turn to the accessible means that the band's vocals, never a strong point, are highlighted ? most songs have quite a bit of singing, with the vocals high in the mix, and to me this is definitely not a good thing. A further change for the worse is the loss of Anna Sofi Dahlberg's cello, which was already severely underused in From Within and does not appear at all here.



Of all of these songs, only the opener "Monolith" is memorable at all. The rest of the songs evoke a nicely brooding sort of mood, but are generally inoffensive and pass by in the same sort of nondescript haze as, say, Opeth's Damnation. Come to think of it, Damnation and Gravity might actually appeal to a similar audience, but unfortunately longtime fans who cut their teeth on Vemod and Nucleus may find Gravity lacking the same kind of appealing edge. Although I guess for the proggy-prog fanatics, there's Mellotron. Lots and lots of freakin' Mellotron.



Review by Brandon Wu



Source: http://www.progreviews.com/reviews/display.php?rev=anek-grav