Revisiting Anglagard's Viljans Öga

[Poisoned Youth]

I find it cloying, and pretty cliched. Some of it sounds like a bad Disney soundtrack to me. I especially dislike that kind of circus ending... like we haven't heard that a zillion times before. It just feels like Anglagard mailed in this track, and for me, it just adds nothing after Snårdom, which I think ends the record beautifully.

VO lacks the magic of the first two. That is what gives it the “going through the motions” feel to me. As you said, All Traps On Earth is Anglagard evolved. It’s a brilliant album that hits all kinds of prog buttons, and still feels fresh 4 years later.

[Sputnik]

VO lacks the magic of the first two. That is what gives it the “going through the motions” feel to me. As you said, All Traps On Earth is Anglagard evolved. It’s a brilliant album that hits all kinds of prog buttons, and still feels fresh 4 years later.

Yeah, I'm totally with you. I really hope All Traps on Earth do another one!

Bill

[JKL2000]

To me, VO sounds pretty different from the first two. That used to bother me - that it sounded newer - but it didn't bother me at all the other night. So while VO may not have been a big evolution for Anglagard, it was at least a change. I think the compositions and playing are very good. I do need to listen to it even more though...

[Progatron]

VO lacks the magic of the first two. That is what gives it the “going through the motions” feel to me. As you said, All Traps On Earth is Anglagard evolved. It’s a brilliant album that hits all kinds of prog buttons, and still feels fresh 4 years later.

All Traps On Earth is fantastic, a huge highlight of 2018 for me. In fact, it was in my top three that year, along with Phideaux's Infernal and Tony Banks' Five (the Ske reissue that year was way up there too, but not brand new).

[Zappathustra]

To me, VO sounds pretty different from the first two.

they should have replicated Hybris with different album titles and covers at least 10 times. Then we would all be happy about it

[Trane]

what I had to say about VO in my review of the album back then still mostly stands today

Right from the opening notes of the flute in Ur Vilande, you'll know that you'll be riding the usual Angla roller-coaster, from the melancholic passage to the head-twisting and mind-bending breakneck-speed passages. You'll even find some bass rumbles that could come from an (unannounced) didgeridoo, though it could death throes coming from some horn's tripes (there are low-register horn courtesy of guests Borgergad or Ackerstedt. The following Sorgmantel opens like a classical composition, but soon veers Yes-like with that typical Swedish-mustard flavour. The album-longest (16-mins+) Snardom is probably my fave on the album. Disappointment strikes with the closing Langtans Klocka that repeats endlessly a theme that seems lifted from McCartney's Michelle, to end up with a Klezmer music version. Not exactly the way you'd expect an Anglagard album to finish, though.
Sooooo, yes, some 20 years after Hybris, the band is able to repeat their studio performance and manage to remain equal to theirselves. And if you expect another shot of Epibris or Hybilog, you'll get it no problems, but to be honest, I was expecting a bit "more" than just that. And in the light of that kind of expectations, Angla certainly didn't deliver? but did anybody else but moi expected that from them?

[JKL2000]

Have you seen the film about the making of the album? If so you’ll know why he looked pissed off.

Is the film about the making of the album on YouTube? Do you have a link to it?

[mozo-pg]

I tried and had huge expectations but something falls flat. I'm really happy that I saw the band play at Nearfest, that was spectacular.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I quite like Viljans Öga. Not a "return to form" of any kind, but an attempt to expand and evolve from it. I think. Sometimes successful too. "Snårdom" is one of their highlights as a whole, to my ears at least.

I enjoy that All Traps On Earth even more, though. Fat chance, I suppose, of seeing any of it performed in concert.

Yet Epilog was always my fave Ängla. "Sista Somrar" remains their masterwork composition, IMHO. And while I always really dug Hybris and was glad to be around when it was brand new and made a buzz (I got it in the mail directly from Jørn Andersen at Colours), I was never as fanatic about it as some.

I guess I postponed that reaction a few years down the line to when Simon Steensland issued The Zombie Hunter and Thinking Plague did In Extremis and I fell off my barstool in sheer shock of toxic clock-rock, my frock getting unlocked to release some mock from the surrounding flock. Great times still, those early-to-late-90s.

I'll have to spin Viljans Öga again tonight; it's already been a year or two since I did so last. Perhaps I'll do the entire Ängla oeuvre and add All Traps to the mix - not to compare but to simply entertain the idea of how generous these past couple of decades have been as concerns outstanding new music of "our" brand coming out at all. I sincerely believe the whole ordeal is about to fold down, so we should be grateful.

[Camelogue]

I quite like Viljans Öga. Not a "return to form" of any kind, but an attempt to expand and evolve from it. I think. Sometimes successful too. "Snårdom" is one of their highlights as a whole, to my ears at least.

I enjoy that All Traps On Earth even more, though. Fat chance, I suppose, of seeing any of it performed in concert.

Yet Epilog was always my fave Ängla. "Sista Somrar" remains their masterwork composition, IMHO. And while I always really dug Hybris and was glad to be around when it was brand new and made a buzz (I got it in the mail directly from Jørn Andersen at Colours), I was never as fanatic about it as some.

I guess I postponed that reaction a few years down the line to when Simon Steensland issued The Zombie Hunter and Thinking Plague did In Extremis and I fell off my barstool in sheer shock of toxic clock-rock, my frock getting unlocked to release some mock from the surrounding flock. Great times still, those early-to-late-90s.

I'll have to spin Viljans Öga again tonight; it's already been a year or two since I did so last. Perhaps I'll do the entire Ängla oeuvre and add All Traps to the mix - not to compare but to simply entertain the idea of how generous these past couple of decades have been as concerns outstanding new music of "our" brand coming out at all. I sincerely believe the whole ordeal is about to fold down, so we should be grateful.

Does that mean nobody is going to make the music we like?

[chalkpie]

Yet Epilog was always my fave Ängla. "Sista Somrar" remains their masterwork composition, IMHO. And while I always really dug Hybris and was glad to be around when it was brand new and made a buzz (I got it in the mail directly from Jørn Andersen at Colours), I was never as fanatic about it as some.

Agreed and agreed. Epilog is a fav album of all time, and "Sista Somrar" is their "Close to the Fudge" for me.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Does that mean nobody is going to make the music we like?

Yes.

Not Genesis. No one is going to make the music we like, and either way we're entering the tomb soon. If we can afford a tomb. Me myself I've been negotiating with my superior at work in order for him to give me a discount on one of those ol' latex garbage bags that I could hopefully crawl into when the time is ripe or at least getting close.

But alas he said no, so I'll be hiding in a closet somewhere and just hope that the owner won't sense the scent before I'm turning into mummy format. I'll try to make a triple sympho-concept album from there.

[JKL2000]

Yes.

Not Genesis. No one is going to make the music we like, and either way we're entering the tomb soon. If we can afford a tomb. Me myself I've been negotiating with my superior at work in order for him to give me a discount on one of those ol' latex garbage bags that I could hopefully crawl into when the time is ripe or at least getting close.

But alas he said no, so I'll be hiding in a closet somewhere and just hope that the owner won't sense the scent before I'm turning into mummy format. I'll try to make a triple sympho-concept album from there.

I want my ashes buried in one of my Genesis box sets. Duncan, make a note of that!