ANEKDOTEN: "Until All The Ghosts Are Gone" April 10

[mozo-pg]

I quite like the so called lessor albums, From Within, Gravity, and Time of Day. I have no problem at all with Anekdoten's evolving style. The lastest is excellent. Saw them in Quebec City and scatched them off my bucket list.

[chalkpie]

^ especially if something sounds like Cardiacs.....autobuy!

[Phlakaton]

^ especially if something sounds like Cardiacs.....autobuy!

frak yes!

[battema]

Nucleus was my first, and I still love it. But Gravity and Until All The Ghosts Are Gone are my two overall favorites.

From Within is great, but for some reason it just isn't the one I reach for. Vemod never really did much for me. Time of Day never quite fully clicked with me as a whole, although the dual sound of "Sky About to Rain" into "Every Step I Take" is one of my all-time favorite moments from the band.

Weird random fact: while I knew about the King Crimson influences, what really kind of drew me in even more (especially with From Within) were mentions in reviews to the band's similarity to The 3rd and the Mortal (Painting on Glass is a desert island disc of mine). Or maybe it was the other way around, that 3rd and the Mortal reminded reviewers of Anekdoten. Either way, damned good company

[Zappathustra]

Until All The Ghosts is the one that presents Anekdoten as a great rock band, beyond the early KC adoration, beyond even the pigeonholeing of prog-rock. The scope is greater: Shooting Star has some serious Zeppelinesque glory in these huge, oriental guitar parts. Writing on the Wall is a magnificent achievement where the sheer strength of the melodies outweighs the brilliant arrangements and performance.

To me it is the resulting work of a band that has finally reached an accomplishment.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Time of Day never quite fully clicked with me as a whole, although the dual sound of "Sky About to Rain" into "Every Step I Take" is one of my all-time favorite moments from the band.

Their most underrated album by far, IMHO. The middle-to-ending of "30 Pieces" - with the flute solo by way of a descending chord patterns towards a final release sporting 'tron and ultimately acoustic piano - is sheer and brilliant beauty, whereas "In For a Ride" catches them as r&rr'y as you'll ever hear - and "Prince of the Ocean" gets to be as sombre yet optimistically terminal as any song I heard.

I somehow wish folx would listen more tentatively to this record, 'cause the markers of greatness are there - albeit a bit in hiding.

[battema]

Their most underrated album by far, IMHO. The middle-to-ending of "30 Pieces" - with the flute solo by way of a descending chord patterns towards a final release sporting 'tron and ultimately acoustic piano - is sheer and brilliant beauty, whereas "In For a Ride" catches them as r&rr'y as you'll ever hear - and "Prince of the Ocean" gets to be as sombre yet optimistically terminal as any song I heard.

I somehow wish folx would listen more tentatively to this record, 'cause the markers of greatness are there - albeit a bit in hiding.

This thread prompted me to take another dive into their catalog -- Nucleus is in the car for my daily commute in fact -- and I'll be sure and give this one another listen along the way

[Trane]

part of what I'd written about A Time Of Day

After an enthralling lead-off track Great Unknown (the usual Anekdoten realm track plus a great flute), comes one of the most unusual but extremely successful track 30 Pieces starting out like an 80's pop track (Nordin's drumming will keep this characteristic for much of the 7-min+ track) and slowly evolving to become a wild four minutes instrumental interplay passage where the superb flute takes the lion's share of the spotlight; Very refreshing and a great start to this album!

King Of Oblivion (with its shared verses between Jan and Niklas) and A Sky About To Rain (with a slower and ambient ending that's overstaying slightly its welcome) fail to maintain the superb level of the first two, but both would've been highlights on the previous Gravity. The short instrumental Every Step I Take (with a post rock feeling especially the guitar part), Stardust And Sand (a very acoustic ballad that reminds War Is over from the previous album, but in better), the gloomy and furious In For A Ride (with its great inter-verse lunacy bits) and Prince Of The Ocean (slow, lengthy and haunting) are ending the album on the same level than it started.

I'll probably also reassess their discography (minus the first two, which I know by heart)... Ghosts stayed roughly one year on my rotation (that's quite a feat), but I haven't revisited it since I stored it away

[Trane]

OK, I've relistened to the whole thing from From Within until Ghosts


- From Within, I'll have to admit that I'd gotten a little tired of listening to it,; so I'd come to undervalue it, but it's a classic one. raised from 10 to Gnosis 11
- Gravity... didn't like it much as it came out and it's still the weaker one, but sonics-wise it's in the continuity of Vemod and Within. I'll raise it a Gnosis point from 9 to 10
- Time of Day ... quite a sonic shock really after spinning a few times Within and Gravity... Doesn't reality sound Anekdoten-y ... 30 Pieces even sounds like a The Cure tracks. Had not noticed this when I first discovered the album (and hadn't compared to other albums of theirs). Where are tracks that are quite good on it (whereas there were no stand outs in Gravity, IMHO), and it is unmistakably the band, but its production makes it a different beast. I've not upped my rating, keeping it at 10
- Ghosts will remain at gnosis 12 though it should be at 12.5 really ), Vemod (incl Sad Rain) being at 13 ans Nucleus (incl Luna Surface) being at 12.

[Trane]

Been listening to other Anekdoten or related albums

- Vemod - still love and I'm ever grateful to myself for acquiring the Japanese version with Sad Rain. This bonus track givesthe album an edge that no others do
- Nucleus - unlike Vemod, the Japanese version with Luna Fatale bonus track tagged onto it is not really a plus where it is placed (at the end). Should this track have been inserted as a pause between two full-frontal attacks, it might have been more judicious
- Morte Macabre: outside the closing monster track, I find myself yawning at most of the album and TBH, making false movie soundtracks (with dialogues) is not such a good idea for repeated listens.
- the El último fin de semana soundtrack (a real one this time) is interesting, but it doesn't work all that well outside the movie's context (I bought the DVD directly from the Spanish director Norterto Ramos, because it didn't get a big screen window in Benelux) and the thriller it is accommodates itself of the Mellotron-drenched atmospheres that Niklas Barker gave it. Noprdin (drums) and the bassist's wife or sister on cello are playing on it
https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/nicklas_barker

- Official Live Bootleg 98 is outstanding and better than the Live japan 2005, whose set list I find less convincing.

[The Czar]

Nucleus was my first, and I still love it. But Gravity and Until All The Ghosts Are Gone are my two overall favorites.

From Within is great, but for some reason it just isn't the one I reach for. Vemod never really did much for me. Time of Day never quite fully clicked with me as a whole, although the dual sound of "Sky About to Rain" into "Every Step I Take" is one of my all-time favorite moments from the band.

Weird random fact: while I knew about the King Crimson influences, what really kind of drew me in even more (especially with From Within) were mentions in reviews to the band's similarity to The 3rd and the Mortal (Painting on Glass is a desert island disc of mine). Or maybe it was the other way around, that 3rd and the Mortal reminded reviewers of Anekdoten. Either way, damned good company

I love 3rd and the mortal. Nobody ever talks about them. That's awesome. My favorite album is still tears laid in Earth

[mozo-pg]

Anekdoten were always a bucket list band for me. I like, to varying degrees, all of their output. Trane's assessment is quite balanced (showing value in most everything they did). For me. though, Gravity is much stronger. I've mentioned this before but I was lucky enough to see Anekdoten at the Terra Ignconita Festival in Quebec City. I rememer being transfixed with Anna Sofi Dahlberg playing. I also vividly remember Sad Rain. I don't think Anekdoten would have survived with Red era influenced music found on their first two albums. They evolved, which is fine by me.

[battema]

I love 3rd and the mortal. Nobody ever talks about them. That's awesome. My favorite album is still tears laid in Earth

They remain a favorite of mine, and also kind of the ultimate bucket list band because while technically they're all still alive and several are still active, it feels damned near impossible that they'd ever return.

Kari's most recent stuff tries to catch a little of the old magic, but IMHO she does better going her own way. Tactile Gemma was decent but forgettable. Although, if you haven't heard The Soundbyte you really should. It's Trond's band and while it isn't THEM, it's definitely a worthwhile addition to the 'Mortal family tree:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDkXjN2f3so

(hell, it might just appeal to some folks here, but either way sorry for the detour)

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ I saw 3rd. & the Mortal live on several occasions back at university, and I can vouch for the fact that they were not "understood" by very many folks even here in Norway. To make things worse, their emergence conicided with that of the whole Norwegian extreme- and black metal scene, and most "true" metal fans seemed disgusted by the band's lack of "coherent commitment" to "the cause". Unlike the revisionist tale of how entirely transcendent that circuit and phenomenon appeared, its audience were neither culturally/musically adventurous nor eclectically minded in any particular fashion - the majority were rather attracted to the social valor of identification which entailed it.

3rd. & the Mortal constituted a fundamentally different type of approach altogether, one in which aesthetic outreach was a main virtue and the craft of colour its language. I've still got my double-vinyl of Tears Laid in Earth, released on the now-mythical Voices of Wonder label, but to be honest I felt them to be far more effective on the ensuing releases with Ann-Mari Edvardsen and on Painting on Glass especially. By that point even the few followers they'd conjured from the metal environment turned their backs completely; the notion of "avant-garde" was apparently like telling that crowd how alleged demonic possession or apparitions are actually cases of mental disturbance - to former fans it was abstract, difficult, dangerous and "intellectual". I can't even begin to count the sheer number of attemptive conversations I had with Norwegian metalheads about the band's horrid developments and the extent to which the term "treason" came up - the tone of thought was pitifully ludicrous.

Not many people attended their last batch of concerts, I believe when I saw them at Hulen (Bergen's primary concert venue for students) there may have been about a dozen listeners in all. Quite sad state of affairs, I'd say. It's still interesting to note how Ulver would largely resume the torch, though - with significantly more positive feedback. Perhaps audiences weren't ready for 3rd. & the Mortal yet, who knows.

[battema]

^^ I had no idea how badly they were rejected at the time. A friend loaned me Painting on Glass and it was almost instant love from the first note. That one is my Desert Island Disc, but In This Room is a close second. I'd never heard anything like them before, and really since. Just such beautiful music.

Minor fun aside...when I went to audition for a now-defunct metal band in the DC area, as I was warming up I started playing the soft middle section from 'Dreamscapes.' The bassist told me afterwards that the moment he heard me playing that part, he was certain that I was the guy A year later we started Ephemeral Sun together and are still going strong so...thanks 3rd and the Mortal!!

[battema]

Second aside...while I was in said metal band, we had dual female singers. Got some pretty strong retorts about the legitimacy of the band as a metal entity. I remember I engaged one gentleman in some (what I thought was lighthearted) banter about a negative review he wrote. He exploded on me over everything wrong with girlie metal or something and finished with "you want to know what's wrong with metal these days? LOOK IN THE MIRROR, GOTH BOY "

Just for laughs, I popped over to the nearest mirror, took a peek at my lightly graying hair, tan shorts and sensible summer t shirt , and duly realized that yes, my goth ass is clearly the thing that killed metal.

Thank god we're past that now, and we have a growing prog rock scene that unilaterally embraces real progress and doesn't slavishly worship the days of old.

[moecurlythanu]

Thank god we're past that now, and we have a growing prog rock scene that unilaterally embraces real progress and doesn't slavishly worship the days of old.

Yessss!!

[Scrotum Scissor]

Yessss!!

Don't forget the other eight bands as well!

[Naytheet]

🇸🇪, 2015.
Take a good look at PA's great concise biography of the band.
Guest starring : Theo Travis from KC and Per Wiberg from Opeth.
This is the latest (last?) album by Anekdoten. Now there is another musician, and the awesome band of before is kind of gone. But an Anekdoten album is *never* a bad one. This one might feel less melancholic here and there, but each track is an amazing one, with happiness in Niklas' legendary voicetone, and deserves a pretty high rating again.

[vmartell]

Second aside...while I was in said metal band, we had dual female singers. Got some pretty strong retorts about the legitimacy of the band as a metal entity. I remember I engaged one gentleman in some (what I thought was lighthearted) banter about a negative review he wrote. He exploded on me over everything wrong with girlie metal or something and finished with "you want to know what's wrong with metal these days? LOOK IN THE MIRROR, GOTH BOY "

Just for laughs, I popped over to the nearest mirror, took a peek at my lightly graying hair, tan shorts and sensible summer t shirt , and duly realized that yes, my goth ass is clearly the thing that killed metal.

Thank god we're past that now, and we have a growing prog rock scene that unilaterally embraces real progress and doesn't slavishly worship the days of old.

Wow - misogynistic metal gatekeeping... sorry you experienced that.

I have to say though, I have never been too hanged up in the "progress" part of "Progressive Rock" - IMHO it is just a label, doesn't mean anything. To me it just signals music that I might like.

I don't expect the bands to "progress" all the time or at all; it's not even something I think about. I like Prog, many different substyles, not all of them and don't give a damn if it is something I heard before. I just want stuff I LIKE. In fact, I think I slavishly worship the days of old

All IMHO, of course. My taste. People can disagree and surely will.

So, Anekdoten is no more?

[mozo-pg]

So, Anekdoten is no more? No, they're still active. Unless I missed news.

[Naytheet]

My bet is they've chosen to remain as high as our quality expectation instead of releasing unnecessary albums and have been into live performances, like KC. Caviar is good and rare.

[jcarr73729]

https://anekdoten.bandcamp.com/album...-gone-hd-24-96

[Digital_Man]

According to the Anekdoten website they are still active as of 2022 (some live dates listed from that year).