| CD REVIEW Damn Your Idols |
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Band : Evergrey My personal introduction to this fine Swedish Melodic Dark Metal act came in early 2003 when, as a background to an interview I had to transcribe, our editor in chief handed me over the band's then current album Recreation Day as well as their preceding In Search Of Truth (2001). A further acquaintance with the band followed with the 2005 release of their live album and DVD A Night To Remember (again with an ensuing transcript of an interview). The DVD was N°1 in the Swedish charts for 4 weeks, and even got nominated for a Grammy. Since then, the guys released their somewhat more experimental 6th studio album Monday Morning Apocalypse in 2006...an album which we at Concrete Web never even got for review. Anyway...since then the boys have been busy re-arranging their professional life as musicians. Not only by getting a new approach towards the band, but also by getting themselves totally new management and booking agencies, but also by getting back the rights to all their previous material. Not surprisingly, that took some time arranging, but eventually Evergrey prevailed and, when they went into contractual details with their new label SPV, were able to include the re-issue of their other albums in the deal. People who are acquainted with the band, may know that with the writing sessions for each album, there's always been some left-over tracks which were not included in the albums for several different reasons. In other words, expect the future re-issued albums all to contain elaborate bonus tracks! Also, to improve on their bass sound (which had always been limited to a simple playing along with the drums), Evergrey supplanted Fredrik Larsson with former Stratovarius bass expert Jaru Kainulainen during last Summer. As a first product in their cooperation, Evergrey and SPV are proud to present the band's new studio album. Frontman Tom Englund (who also produced the recordings) describes the new material as "...a modern mix of In Search Of Truth and Recreation Day...", and in parts thanks to the excellent musicianship of their new bassist (whom does wày more than just play along with the drums), I have to say that the end result is simply thunderous! Of course, it's not only the improved bass playing which makes for that more modern sound. In fact, the guitars were put in the mix with a sound somewhat geared towards the low spectrum (can't say they actually down-tuned the guitars, see). To let their true fans get a whiff of the new material, the guys posted the complete album at myspace.com/officialevergrey for a whole week at the beginning of September, and it's a pity I couldn't get around to do this review earlier (due to the enormous amount of stuff that's coming out these days and had precedent on this one), because now you'll only find the album's opening track "Broken Wings" posted as well as "Fail" (alongside a couple of older songs). Still, that's enough to give you a decent taster of the band's new (but still firmly holding onto the old antics) and improved sound. If that's not enough for you, you may wanna check out the (video) trailers the band posted on their MySpace over the last couple of months, or give the album a listen when it comes out...but be aware that the 11 tracks WILL take you almost 54 minutes to get through! 93/100 Tony. |