PreHistoric Animals – Finding Love in Strange Places

I am a big fan of well-written sci-fi stories, and it’s a perfect ground for progressive metal(there are great examples of that, like “The Great Escape” by Seventh Wonder, one of my favourite sci-fi themed albums), and swedes PreHistoric Animals have a history of writing deep and meaningful stories, as well as wrapping them into  a beautiful melodic prog blanket.

The band’s new album, “Finding Love in Strange Places”, is no exception – a successor of the “Magical Mystery Machine”, it’s another step of this young (despite their name) band’s evolution.

With the new record, the band continues to impress with captivating stories, heavy riffs and melodic piano melodies. Inspired by the 80s music and alternative rock, PreHistoric Animals still have a lot to say on their own, which hopefully will put them in the progressive rock highlight.

The album is, of course, about love – as the name suggests, but not just love. There are few separate love stories, as the band describes it, “A dystopian version of “Love Actually””, showing that love can take many shapes – from “Black Mirror”-like story about a couple getting married and using a computer program to test their feelings in ‘Unbreakable’, to the industrial love story between the unnamed Number 4 and Number 10 working in the factory, among others, which show a fantastic level of creativity and dedication of the band to explore the concepts and focus on an interesting story, and not just writing music.

Although music is also an important part of the story – PreHistoric Animals songs are a good mix of melodic keyboard solos, 80s electric sound (like the synthetiser-powered intro to ‘Living in a World of Bliss’, powerful riffs, and beautiful solos played by none other than Daniel Magdic (ex-Pain of Salvation), and creative drum grooves – nothing seems out of place, and even though the songs are quite long, the purpose is to tell the story – so nothing seems like it’s dragging for too long. It’s hard to define the genre for the music, but it goes from progressive, to alternative Muse–style rock, to melodic rock, and Stefan Altzar’s voice adds a unique flavour to the music.

There are few short interludes between the stories, which might feel unnecessary, but they add the melody and quietness in between the big tracks, so I didn’t mind them.

The album is relatively short (45 minutes, including the final track, ‘Nothing has changed but everything is different’, a Christmas single that came out some time ago, but doesn’t feel out of place here, despite perhaps being a quieter song, but it’s a good closer.

I have been a big fan of PreHistoric animals since I saw them live back in 2019, and they are proving once again to be constantly evolving. I have a soft spot for story-driven albums (even though I am not very good at following the lyrics when listening to the song), as being able to write something interesting as an album concept is not an easy task. “Finding Love in Strange Places” is definitely an outstanding piece of work, in a dystopian setting, yet always hopeful and melodic, and, as their previous work, the band sends a positive message that despite all the challenges we face, we can always find something beautiful in any situation.

Track List:

1. The city of my dreams
2. A bad day for the neon gods
3. Living in a world of bliss
4. Unbreakable
5. Strange places
6. He is number 4
7. Come home
8. The secret society of goodness
9. Nothing has changed but everything is different