Beardfish - Prog Rock of Our Time: Från En Plats Du Ej Kan Se

Beardfish is definitively one of my favorite modern progressive rock bands right now, they resemble everything that I love from the original 70's prog bands, Frank Zappa and modern hard folk rock. They are one of my favorite bands nowadays because without a doubt; Beardfish is one of the most solid and productive bands out there. In a lifespan of only 10 years they have released 6 albums and their 7th album is coming out this month. Many people called them the "Scandinavian Spock's Bread", jeje, this comment is a little ironic for me since I don't like Spock's Bread, their style is heavenly inspired by 70's prog rock and a lot of people may think that they don't have a lot of new things to offer, but they're wrong.

What I love about Beardfish is not particularly their music style or their musical skills but more like the musical atmosphere that they manage to create in their music: that melancholic, folkish, eclectic, odd nocturne atmosphere they manage to create is the soul of their music and that's what I love the most about them.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="425"] Rikard Sjöblom, David Zackrisson, Magnus Östgren, Robert Hansen[/caption]

Beardfish was formed in Sweden in the summer of 2001 as a small garage prog band, it was two years later in 2003 that they established themselves as a true band releasing their debut album: Fran En Plats Du Ej Kan Se.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="320"] From A Place You Can't See[/caption]

1. Från En Plats Du Ej Kan Se (7:55)
2. Today (6:42)
3. Spegeldans (8:04)
4. Brother (2:54)
5. Poison Ivy And The Full Monty (6:28)
6. A Good Excuse (5:01)
7. Om En Utväg Fanns (6:48)
8. A Psychic Amplifier (15:01)

Beardfish is an ascending band, which means that every album that they release just gets better and better, their first release is a really solid debut album and it doesn't look like the first album of a band at all.

Is really well produced, and you can see that they had their atmospheric style already define, the music is solid and consistent through out almost all the album, however there are several low points.

The album starts with the dramatic, heavy and melancholic title track, a perfect opening for the album and for the career of this band.

Today is also an amazing song, a little bit more rock-oriented and melodic than the last one.

Spegeldans (The Dance of the mirrors) by far is one of the highlights of the album, it's the first major progressive rock song from the album and it has all the music and atmospheric prog changes of  that you love so much, despite been a great song altogether.

Brother and Poison Ivy and The Full Monty which are basically just one song. The first part is probably the most melancholic song of the entire album but it has an amazing intro bass line showing that Robert Hansen is probably one of the underrated bassist out there. The second part is symphonic rock at its finest and will remind you of Jethro Tull and early Genesis and then it turns into a funk jazzy zappa song ending with the amazing bass line that I already described.

A Good Excuse is a good song but I consider it the lowest part of the album, mainly because of the main riff of the song, they use it a lot and I just don't like that riff, but overall is a good funk prog song.

Om En Utväg Fanns you can call this a melancholic folk punk song with an amazing acoustic intro.

A Psychic Amplifier is obviously the highest point and climax of the album, all that you would expect from a true prog band is just right there, musical virtuosity, changing odd compositions, amazing signing and the characteristic Beardfish style all over the place.

Overall and amazing debut and a solid album but there's more yet to come.