Metal Reviews

Sorry for the late reply, guys.

Anyway, here's a bit of help...

Sun Caged: Dutch band featuring Marcel Coenen (guitars) and had Joost Van Den Broek (Ayreon, After Forever) on keyboards.

Threshold: Brit band featuring Karl Groom (reknowned producer) and has featured the awesome voices of Damian Wilson (Ayreon) and Andrew McDermott. Band has already 8 studio albums to their active and have been around since the early 90s. Check out their Hypothetical or Dead Reckoning albums.

Karnivool: Criminally unknown Aussie band with only one album so far (Themata) but are quite awesome (especially in vocal department).

DeadSoulTribe: New band of Devon Graves (aka Buddy Lackey of Psychotic Waltz). Prog metal at times mellow, at times edgier, often kinda Tool-sounding. Album to check out: A Murder of Crows.

Poverty's No Crime: Criminally unknown German band (not too much unlike Sieges Even) who are more on the prog side. No famous member but already 6 albums to their active. Great band, especially their last 2 albums. Album to check out: The Chemical Chaos or Save My Soul.

Ice Age: US Prog metal from Long Island (NY). Band only released two great albums in '99 and 2001 before changing names and style. Albums: The Great Divide, Liberation.

Shadow Gallery: US prog metal band. If you like prog and don't know this band, shame on you. You need to check out this band and their Tyranny album, a masterpiece of prog metal. Also Room V, which is the continuation of Tyranny. Band has 5 albums, no real famous members (maybe Gary Wehrkamp to some) but an awesome vocalist in Mike Baker.

And for the power metal ones... I don't think I need to introduce Pagan's Mind but here's a bit on the others.

Katagory V: USPM band with a bit of prog influences. Good band with 4 albums already. Although I personally am not a fan of USPM, their latest album, Hymns of Dissension, is a worthy listen. Vocalist is an acquired taste, it seems.

Kenziner: A sort of all-star now defunct Finnish band featuring amongst others Stephen Fredrick who did the vocals on the two first Firewind albums and Jarno Koskinen, the mastermind behind the band and also mastermind behind Virtuocity, another neo-classical PM band. Check out their Timescape album.

Eldritch: Italian band who played a wierd thrash metal hybrid on their first 2 albums then verged to thrashy power metal and now turned to progressive power metal. A very good band, especially their last 3 albums. Albums: Portraits of the Abyss Within, Neighborhell, Blackenday.

Serenity: A young but very awesome Austrian band who plays progressive power metal. Only 2 albums so far but quite strong ones. Definitely needs to be known. Got signed to Napalm for their new album, which is a surprise. Albums: Words Untold and Dreams Unlived, Fallen Sanctuary.

Well, that's it... hope all this helps clear up things.

Add Frost* to the list of prog bands worth checking out. They have a new album due out next month if memory serves.

Seriously? Wow... I loved Milliontown (have it here) but I thought the band was a one-shot thing. Awesome. Definitely add this to the list, folks. They're more prog rock than metal but still awesome.

Edit: the new songs on their myspace actually sound quite awesome and make me look forward to this new album quite a bit!

back to the discussion concerning the album -----------------
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Great review btw.
Being a big evergrey fan (for me "big" means having all the albums + the live Dvd + seen them live + couldn't wait for the new album) I must say that i'm a bit disappointed.

There are a couple reasons for that. After 2,3 weeks of intense listening i'm not "in a trance" as i used to be when i listened to Recreation, or SDT, or In Search of Truth. The songs, no matter how carefully or profoundly i listen to them, somehow seem dull.

And then i realized the horrific fact. Evergrey started to bore me. I understand now what people meant when they said that their songs are all the same. I started to notice stuff, like saying "I" a million times on a album (dude, you're not the only one ****ed up in this world. Except for 3 songs, i can't point out anything more that on this album (Those songs are broken wings, fear, and these scars)

You can criticize me if you want, but i think Tom is slowly running out of ideas (and i think Shaffer has the same problem).
This is a "return to the older stuff" album, and a nice comeback after a different MMA. MMA is also a matter of discussion for itself. Must say that i liked it. A bit lighter and brighter album, and so what? There are some riffs and choruses that i like much more than on Torn. You can't be depressed all the time

Another reason was already posted by Tompa, and that is the date of releasing the album, right with Death Magnetic, Amon Amarth and Wicked pt 6.

All in all, i was too critical, i know. Maybe cause i like evergrey so much. This album made me think about this last statement.
It isn't that bad of course, it still deserves 80/100 from me. It's still evergrey.

Thank you for your very thoughtful analysis. Besides me probably wanting to see the new Evergrey in the best light, and thus perhaps giving it a high score, I did try to spin it many times before coming up with a review. While the songs you have listed are my favorites as well (meaning we probably see/hear Evergrey in the same time), with those multiple spins the album managed to uncover itself for me more. It is rather intricate, even if at times the intricacy is hidden under the veil of heaviness.

Hah, maybe i'll just give it a couple of more tries.

I Like this much more than their previous two, especially MMA.
A mixture of In Search of Truth and Recreation Day, but not as good as those two though. I'd give this a rating between 80 and 85 on 100.
Great effort!

Have you ever listened through the entire "The Inner Circle"? I think that's a good album to start getting into them, as you may think the concept of the lyrics are a bit more interesting. The melodies and the hooks are more catchy as well. On this album they play Metal with dark atmosphere, but at the same time, there's an emotion in the music that resembles a feeling of hope. Or at least, that's what I get from it.