melodylane

EVERGREY - ESCAPE OF THE PHOENIX  (AFM RECORDS, 2021)

"...If you are a fan of EVERGREY…The advice is to buy this album as soon as it is released. If you are not…ESCAPE OF THE PHOENIX could be a good reason to start following this band that’s so precious for the PROG METAL world: in any case you will not be disappointed!..."

Genre: Prog Metal

Rating: 8/10

With ESCAPE OF THE PHOENIX, the twelfth album of their career, EVERGREY confirms themselves as one of the most interesting Prog Metal bands on the world scene. TOM S. ENGLUND and band mates have been living in an uninterrupted state of 'creative' grace for the last decade and album after album have built and defined their style and their sound in a very original way, so that they have now become a real guarantee and a reference point for this kind of music. In the eleven tracks that make up this new EVERGREY effort we find excellent Prog Metal, masterfully played, not excessively experimental, wrapped in melancholy and dark ‘full of pathos’ atmospheres that are perfect to highlight the wonderful voice of the band leader TOM ENGLUND who, with his unmistakable, powerful and warm timbre, manages to transmit and to make the listener live all the emotional charge of his verses, which in this album deal with strictly personal topics such as his vision of the world, humanity, personal relationships, and reflections about life. The band sounds amazing, the music is skillfully played with majestic arrangements always functional to the songs and with a taste that never leads to virtuosity as an end in itself. The album is also very well produced, featuring a clear, and powerful sound production (I love the bass sound and the intertwining of the guitars is perfectly balanced!). I find this album to be an enjoyable and solid one throughout, harder and heavier than EVERGREY’s latest albums, with just only a couple of songs lightly less interesting than all the others. If I had to choose my favorite songs, even if I really think that this is an album that must be listened to and appreciated as a whole, I think it is mandatory to mention WHERE AUGUST MOURN and ETERNAL NOCTURNAL both with sharp riffs and engaging choruses that go into your head and never come out of it and the wonderful IN THE ABSENCE OF SUN that begins with a sweet piano and a calm atmosphere and that rises in an emotional crescendo until the touching refrain  “…and if you never walked among shadows, or never were held in the arms of solitude, then you never felt how cold it is… in the absence of the sun…”, top guitar solo and absolute top song! The monumental THE BEHOLDER is another simply perfect song,  and it deserves a special mention because it features the legendary James Labrie, singer from Dream Theater; the duet fits perfectly and manages to convey the sense of unease and frustration that the verses of ENGLUND are imbued with "... I never felt I have found my way, I feel as if the inside is my enemy. .. I never felt I had found my way out ... ". And I can't help but praise YOU FROM YOU, a sort of power ballad where you can appreciate the depth and drama of ENGLUND's song-writing embellished by a guitar solo that leaves you speechless for melody and feeling. What else to say, I repeat it is useless to talk about the individual songs, it is a really well done album, well structured, written in a sublime way, a perfect blend of feelings, musical technique and inspired and very touching lyrics and  it is useless to dwell on the performance and technical skills of the musicians, as always impeccable. ESCAPE OF THE PHOENIX is an intense record, of considerable value, full of composite sounds and rich in details that may be difficult to appreciate immediately but which, with the foresight not to be influenced by first impressions, will involve you more and more time after time. So don't look for the radio-friendly single, there are beautiful melodies scattered throughout each song, but you have to wait and understand them and once metabolized they will reveal all the magic and value of this album.
If you are a fan of EVERGREY…The advice is to buy this album as soon as it is released.
If you are not…ESCAPE OF THE PHOENIX could be a good reason to start following this band that’s so precious for the PROG METAL world: in any case you will not be disappointed!
If you think that music is not just the tune to sing in the shower or to listen to while doing something else, this is your album. Otherwise Justin Bieber’s  latest album is on offer at every motorway restaurant.
Congratulations EVERGREY!

 

- Tracklist:

01 - Forever Outsider 

02 - Where August Mourn 

03 - Stories 

04 - A Dandelion Cipher 

05 - The Beholder (feat. James LaBrie) 

06 - In The Absence Of Sun 

07 - Eternal Nocturnal 

08 - Escape Of The Phoenix 

09 - You From You 

10 - Leaden Saints 

11 - Run

 

- Line-Up:

Tom S. Englund (vocals, guitars)

Henrik Danhage (guitars)

Rikard Zander (keyboards)

Johan Niemann (bass)

Jonas Ekdahl (drums) 

 

- Web: https://www.facebook.com/Evergrey

- Article by: MIKE MATTY