Metal Reviews

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Man this review worries me. I had hopes for this. I enjoyed Torn it was a return to form from that crap fest MMA.

Again, this is very respectable, not as busy and heavy as Torn, I just did not get my mind blown off. You may very well like it more so I suggest you check it out.

I wouldn't say a return to form but this is still pretty decent. A bit more mellow but the songwriting is still top notch.

80 is pretty much the perfect score imho

This is one I am interested in, but not excited about. Torn was a good album, and even MMA was decent, but the constant depressive nature of the lyrics have just worn me out. Still will give it a go.

Evergrey is still one of my favorite bands, the fantastic trilogy of Solitude*Dominance*Tragedy, In Search of Truth and Recreation Day will be forever in my playlist. But after there they completely lost me.

The Inner Circle while isn't bad, is totally average. And the last two albums are shit. The emotion in their music is completely gone.

I will give the Glorious Collision a try, because they deserve that, but I don't have much hope. Only looking at the ridiculous artwork makes me worry.

Btw, you should review Marrow of the Spirit, the new Agalloch album. There's plenty of emotion there. The song Into the Painted Gray is the best song I've heard in the last few months.

Somebody else on staff is due to review it, so I won't be stepping on anybody's toes.

FINALLY!

Still holding out hope I'll be pleasantly surprised by this. What I've heard so far though is what you describe in the review. Very good, but nothing like their BIG TWO . . . ISOT and Recreation Day. I really like the bookends, Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy and The Inner Circle as well, but the BIG TWO are two of the signature albums of the recent decade. MMA, once I adjusted to it, I actually enjoyed for the more stripped down, song oriented approach it took, and Torn as well with it's heavier vibe, but not quite the same or as transcendent as the BIG TWO. Almost wish Tom had another concept he wanted to paint in music. Might reconnect him/them to the more dynamic musical magic they used to pair with the catchy choruses and pained emotions.

Some of the songs I've heard, like "Wrong", are actually pretty great songs if this was another band---or I had never heard them before. For the Evergrey that I know, though, they have done this type of song, with this type of mood and chorus so many times already, and so well, especially on the post Inner Circle albums, that it's just like: OK, you've mastered the poignantly tortured melodic metal single. Move on. Take it somewhere new. Give us something compositionally adventurous to go along with those great, emotional hooks.

Seems to me Sentenced faced a similar crossroads . . . they perfected that catchy yet still fierce goth metal single (and I love all of their output) . . . but how many times can you keep reinventing that same vibe before it just gets worn too thin for the audience and artist alike???

Nevertheless, Evergrey is a truly great band that has accomplished more than most, and I still enjoy them. Here's hoping for their future.

You know another band that might be coming up on that point is Symphony X. I love X, and Paradise Lost was great, but I am curious to see how they will keep their sound from becoming dated or routine. Evergrey hit that bump right around Inner Circle, and went for the stripped down approach on MMA, which wasnt bad but it was jarring. Time will tell...

Pretty good band, I got Recreation Day....the other day. My only complaint, and it may just be me, but sometimes I get a Nickelback-esque feeling from the vocalist and some of the songs.....its disconcerting. I wish all of the songs sounded like the first song on RD.

If you like Recreation Day be sure to check out "In Search of Truth", IMO it's their best release and a must have. Dark Waters is my favorite track off that album.

as for the Nickelback-esque feeling from the vocalist, I don't hear it.

I like that your back.

In Search of Truth is definiteley the high point IMO. Mark of the Triangle is a great song. Recreation Day is also a great album, but seems like I heard somewhere that Recreation Day is actually a cover song? Cant remember, will have to research it.

"I'm Sorry" is the cover song found on Recreation Day if I remember correctly.

In Search of Truth is great and Solitude Dominance Tragedy is fucking brilliant. I wish Evergrey would go back to that style, I'm not too fond of their current sound to be honest.

I am a huge Evergrey fan and even like their more recent stuff although it's admittedly not as brilliant as SDT, ISOT, and RD, with Recreation Day being my personal favorite.

I heard most of the songs from this album on You Tube and was really impressed! Sounded like their best stuff since RD IMO! Song writing and choruses sound really strong as well as some great soloing! Honestly better than I was expecting cause I was not very impressesed when I heard the 30 sec samples that are posted on Amamzon.de. Plus the artwork didn't really give me a lot of hope.

These songs sound a lot more inspired than their last album Torn which was good but just sounded like something was missing?

Looking forward to buying the actual CD!

I liked Torn a lot and I don't get all the hate on MMA. Great band. Looking forward to getting this.