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Customer Reviews of Epilog

Melancholy masterpiece of modern prog-rock
This effort is different from the Hybris project, Anglagard's previous album. The style is less cheerful, and requires careful listening. It's a game of contrasts, really - the music is highly dynamic (fast-slow-fast, loud-slow-loud), and the musicians worked on complicated compositions.
This album is less "prog-rocky" than before, but it's more mature, deeper and more demanding. The recording quality is better than Hybris, the playing is tighter, and the special studio effects are masterful. The new digipak version has nice pictures and booklet, but the audio quality sounds the same to me. I'd recommend this to people who are not afraid of sad, modernistic & angry music.

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Disappointed
For years I had been hearing all the buzz about Anglagard. In 2000, I was able to score a copy of their debut, Hybris, on Ebay for under 20 bucks. (Hybris was routinely going for $25 on Ebay). I LOVED Hybris; it had all the prog ingredients I dig - mellotron, Rick bass, angular guitar, Bruford-like drumming, touch of flute, and lots of dynamics. Since then, I have had my eye out for Epilog, and apparently it is hard to come by, as another reviewer mentioned.

So you can imagine my joy when I learned of the new re-issues! But my joy quickly turned to disappointment. This just doesn't measure up to Hybris. Epilog is all-instrumental while Hybris had vocals, and even though the singing was in Swedish, and not all that great, it still sounded like it belonged in the music. Something is lacking for me without the vocals.

Plus, it's a short album to begin with, and when you take into account that several of the tracks are just boring solo pieces on piano or cello that serve as interludes to the longer tracks, you're not left with a whole lot of music for your money. The parts where the whole band does ensemble playing are very good, as expected, but it still doesn't seem as compelling to these ears, as the ensemble playing on Hybris.

While Hybris kept me riveted, Epilog leaves me bored for a good deal of the album. Wish it weren't so, but I have to be honest....

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Hard to believe, but they delivered another masterpiece
Änglagård sure worked hard to get themselves recognized in the prog rock community. They got to perform at Progfest '93 (the first one) in Los Angeles, and gave the previously unknown band tons of recognition. Two years after the release of the landmark Hybris, they released their followup, Epilog. Will they give us the sophomore slump? Not at all, in fact I think this album is even better than Hybris. There is a bit of a more classical feel to it, no doubt helped by the presence of cello. Unlike Hybris, there are a couple of short pieces that serve as preludes to the lengthy prog epics that are to come. The short pieces tend to be simply pieces played on piano or cello. The lengthy cuts are much like Hybris, only with an even more developed sound. The loud passages suddenly become quiet and vice versa, only it seems like the quiet passages seem to last longer. The Mellotron and Hammond organ are used just as proudly as their previous album. The band played as an ensemble, once again, to avoid solos or giving anyone an ego boost. Unfortunately the band broke up not too long after this album and their performance at Progfest '94 (which was documented on the album Buried Alive). I guess the reason for their breakup was they knew they probably could never live up to the high expectations that they gave us with their two albums if they were to release a third album. But no matter what, Epilog is another truly essential prog album.