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Nov 06, 2015 Web Exclusive By Chris Drabick

At some point between Tio Bitar and 4, Gustav Ejstes and Dungen shifted the ratio of their psych-prog potion to decidedly prog. That’s cool, I guess, but 2010’s Skit i allt, lacked the urgency of Ta Det Lungt. Ain’t no gettin’ around it.

Which reminds me, has it really been five years since the last Dungen record? See what I mean about urgency? (While I’m asking questions, I also wonder if anyone was ever driven to learn Swedish due to a fanatical attachment to the band.) The layoff didn’t alter the formula all that much; plenty of flute (empirically and inarguably the least rock ‘n’ roll instrument; never mind the fact that Ian Anderson used to scare the crap out of me when I was a kid), all Swedish lyrics that legend has it are pretty cool (I’ll never know), songs crammed with hooks, some more successful than others, in a continuous movement of styles and flavors that makes the 10 tracks here feel like 20.

When a band does something well, I’m not sure we have the right to ask for surprises. But I’m asking for surprises. Set the flute aside, sing a song or two in English (I know first-hand that you speak it, Mr. Ejstes), wind up guitarist Reine Fiske and let him motor away like you were doing on stage a decade a ago (check out Fiske’s side project The Amazing for a refresher on what makes him great). Allas Sak is a nice enough record. It sounds exactly like Dungen. No surprises. (www.dungen-music.com)

Author rating: 6.5/10