| | Full Review | Ratings (45) |
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| 4.5 superb | Gary STAFF | February 16th 20 |
Another beautiful album by the Swede retro-band. Mesmerizing creation, exciting and adventurous! Wonderful album, and deserves lot more attention! Hällas rules m/
2 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.0 good | Antonius | July 22nd 21 |
From the opening riff of "Beyond Night and Day", it is obvious that the Swedes are all about 70s prog-rock sounds and atmosphere. Listening to Conundrum the improvement from the debut album is an obvious one: better flow and coherent tracks which create an enjoyable result. I noted the rusty riffs and the spacey keyboards which are definitely the major reference points here. Drums and vocals are at a decent level but they need major refinements. I believe that this band has a potential but it needs lots of improvements to reach the next level. Recommendations: "Beyond Night and Day", "Fading Hero", "Carry On".
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| 3.5 great | Bedex | May 16th 21 |
This one starts excellently, with a cool intro track that unfolds deliciously well into the dadcore 2. Alas (ba dm tss) I dont think it holds the distance quite well. It does feel far more coherent an album than the debut, and the flow is great and seamless. After 1 the album's essentially a series of prog passages (whether it be intros, outros or interludes), sporadically building up to cool more hard rock moments. And the problem I find is that the tracks that have the best prog passages build up to the least good rock bits, and vice versa, meaning that no track is excellent on the whole. I also take issue with the vocals on this alb more than the first, as they often feel like they could use more meat to back the instrumentals backing them up. That being said there is still a great epic feeling that emanates from the music (I wanna play Skyrim now), the influences are clear be cool, and the album has other strengths as I mentioned above. 3 is a bit of a sea shanty choraley idk track, and I dont know how to feel about it. 4's cool and so is 5 in an 80s way. 6 has a cool buildup, and 7 after a rather meh intro is quite cool when the synths kick in at 1:10 - fonkay. The intro on 8 is excellent, some of the transitions are great like 5:45, but idk if finishing on a more instrumental track like this was the best idea versus having something more explosive - especially with the vocoder section lol come on guys. 3.5
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| 3.0 good | Inoculaeted | November 11th 20 |
The essence of dad prog. There are some fun symphonic compositions and as a whole it's enjoyable. The pendulum swings a little far into corny territory more than I'd like, but it isn't very offensive.
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| 3.4 great | Erwann S. EMERITUS | June 12th 20 |
No "Star Rider"-material on this one, but Hallas continue their cool brand of psych prog hard rock/AOR, this time allowing more space to aerial synths. While being a one-trick pony record, it truly picks up in the second half, full of jams - again, nothing is "Star Rider"-material, but these are all contender for Hallas' 2nd best song. In the end, it's an extremely safe album for the band, but it works. I'd say this is overall a more consistent album than the debut, as it isn't plagued by the awesomeness of that track I've already mentioned twice and won't mention a third time. Ok, STAAAAAAAAAAAR RIIIIIIIDEEEEEER.
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| 4.0 excellent | Chino smoking it up! | February 19th 20 |
I started very skeptic at this album, yet the last 4 tracks won me over. They make some of the coolest prog as the album goes. Great retro/vintage take.
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| 4.0 excellent | Zac124 | June 15th 24 |
| 4.0 excellent | Lvxfra | October 25th 21 |
| 3.5 great | Zakusz | June 28th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | arf | March 18th 21 |
| 3.5 great | Pangea | January 19th 21 |
| 4.0 excellent | Garden | December 6th 20 |
| 3.5 great | Sunnyvale EMERITUS | September 14th 20 |
| 4.0 excellent | Zakkusz | July 21st 20 |
| 4.0 excellent | neikos | March 31st 20 |
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