This is a band I didn’t put in the Prog-Rock encyclopedia on
purpose, because I wanted to make a separate presentation here…
Anglagard is a Swedish band formed during the summer of
1991, by guitarist Tord Lindman and bassist
Johan Hogborg. In order to find members for the band, they placed ads
asking for musicians willing to play Progressive Rock in the style of the big
bands of the ‘70’s. Their ads were answered by Thomas Johnson (keyboards) and
Jonas Engdegard (guitar) at start, and a little later 2 more members were
added. Mathias Olsson (drums) and Anna Holmgren (flute).
One year later (1992) they released their first album under
the name ‘Hybris’. The album was well received, and the band performed live in
a few Prog-Rock festivals in Europe and USA.
Their sound resembles the sound of the Progressive bands of the
‘70’s, and especially the ones of King Crimson, Genesis, and Van Der Graaf
Generator.Their songs are long, complicated, mostly instrumental , with a heavy
sound filled with mellotron.
A special mention must be made in the virtuoso
percussionist’s way of playing drums.
‘Hybris’ was named ‘album of the year’ by many music magazines, and the band gained
a lot of reputation in the Progressive Rock circles.
In 1994 they released their second album , named ‘Epilog’.
Their music style is the same, but the compositions seemed more inspired. Again
they participated in many Progressive Rock festivals, but after a while the
band splited up.
The recordings from these live performances were released in
1996 in the album named ‘Buried Alive’.
In 2009 rumours spread that the band was reforming after 15
years. That was proved to be absolutely right, and presently they released
their 3rd studio album after 18 years of silence.
The band is at 5/6 the same, with the exception of Thomas
Lindman. In addition they have 3 more musicians added in the band. Tove
Tornberg (cello),Daniel Borgegård Älgå (clarinet, bass clarinet, baritone
saxophone) and Ulf Åkerstedt (bass tuba, bass trumpet, contrabass trumpet).
The new album is called ‘Vijiana Oga’, and it contains 4
intrumental songs of an average length 15 minutes each… Upon its release it reached at No.6 in the
Swedish charts, and was sold out.
The latest news are that a re-print is on the way.
As for the future of the band? Well, I guess we will have to
wait to find out…
In the following video you can listen to the (15 minute long) Höstsejd from the album 'Epilog'.
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