MindRuler
Ancient Mariner
EVERGREY - Theories Of Emptiness
Napalm Records (2024) - Total playing time 46:04
A new Evergrey album is always kind of special to me because it´s one of my favourite bands. Although impressed with their previous effort A Heartless Portrait at first, that album lost abit of its shine for me.
The new Theories Of Emptiness, number 14 for the Swedes, is the last one with drummer Jonas Ekdahl and has a great production where all individual instruments and vocals shine: it´s a feast with headphones btw!
Falling From The Sun is Evergrey by numbers and has all the ingredients needed to make it a great Evergrey song. Very catchy chorus and a melodic guitar solo and of course Tom Englunds emotional vocals.
Misfortune has a nice intro which flows into a softer part with synths and chuggy riffs. The chorus however isn´t as great as the usual Evergrey choruses. Not a bad song at all but abit bland after the nice opener.
To Become Someone Else has a nice haunting intro that almost hark back to their early days. Beautiful quiet chorus before bursting into a djenty chuggy riff fest. After second verse the chorus is now accompanied with guitars at a nice midtempo pace.
Again a quiet part with synths and sparse guitarlines that remind me of the Atlantic album. Chuggy guitars return to break into the final chorus.
Say opens with guitar riffs accompanied with Deep Purplish organ sounds but the moment Tom starts to sing the underlying guitar riff reminds me of the classic Evergrey sound. And yes! Fantastic chorus! This is the Evergrey I love. What a great bass during second verse and melodic solo followed by a short instrumental section. Highlight 2 for sure!
Ghost Of My Hero is a ballad with very touching lyrics. This time it´s perfectly placed in the middle of the album unlike on the previous record where the ballad closed the album.
We Are The North takes us back to classic Evergrey territory again. What a beast!
Even some harsh vocals. A quiet part leads back into prechorus and chorus and guitar solo.
And here it is people: my favourite song of the album and...yes I allready dare to say it: in my Top 10 alltime Evergrey songs!
The Night Within has a chorus that sends shivers down my spine and has all the elements of a perfect Evergrey song.
We don´t have to wait too long for another highlight:
Cold Dreams features grunts from Jonas Renske and Toms daughter Salina who just sounds like her mom! The grunts and fast parts are a nice contrast with Salina´s vocals.
Our Way Through Silence is a perfect album closer because the track A Theory Of Emptiness is just a short instrumental with a spoken AI(?) voice which sounds abit weird at first but if you have the CD player on repeat it is a nice intro to Falling From The Sun.
Overall the new Evergrey is a great album with alot potential to grow on me. This disc is on repeat for the coming days.
☆☆☆☆½
Napalm Records (2024) - Total playing time 46:04
A new Evergrey album is always kind of special to me because it´s one of my favourite bands. Although impressed with their previous effort A Heartless Portrait at first, that album lost abit of its shine for me.
The new Theories Of Emptiness, number 14 for the Swedes, is the last one with drummer Jonas Ekdahl and has a great production where all individual instruments and vocals shine: it´s a feast with headphones btw!
Falling From The Sun is Evergrey by numbers and has all the ingredients needed to make it a great Evergrey song. Very catchy chorus and a melodic guitar solo and of course Tom Englunds emotional vocals.
Misfortune has a nice intro which flows into a softer part with synths and chuggy riffs. The chorus however isn´t as great as the usual Evergrey choruses. Not a bad song at all but abit bland after the nice opener.
To Become Someone Else has a nice haunting intro that almost hark back to their early days. Beautiful quiet chorus before bursting into a djenty chuggy riff fest. After second verse the chorus is now accompanied with guitars at a nice midtempo pace.
Again a quiet part with synths and sparse guitarlines that remind me of the Atlantic album. Chuggy guitars return to break into the final chorus.
Say opens with guitar riffs accompanied with Deep Purplish organ sounds but the moment Tom starts to sing the underlying guitar riff reminds me of the classic Evergrey sound. And yes! Fantastic chorus! This is the Evergrey I love. What a great bass during second verse and melodic solo followed by a short instrumental section. Highlight 2 for sure!
Ghost Of My Hero is a ballad with very touching lyrics. This time it´s perfectly placed in the middle of the album unlike on the previous record where the ballad closed the album.
We Are The North takes us back to classic Evergrey territory again. What a beast!
Even some harsh vocals. A quiet part leads back into prechorus and chorus and guitar solo.
And here it is people: my favourite song of the album and...yes I allready dare to say it: in my Top 10 alltime Evergrey songs!
The Night Within has a chorus that sends shivers down my spine and has all the elements of a perfect Evergrey song.
We don´t have to wait too long for another highlight:
Cold Dreams features grunts from Jonas Renske and Toms daughter Salina who just sounds like her mom! The grunts and fast parts are a nice contrast with Salina´s vocals.
Our Way Through Silence is a perfect album closer because the track A Theory Of Emptiness is just a short instrumental with a spoken AI(?) voice which sounds abit weird at first but if you have the CD player on repeat it is a nice intro to Falling From The Sun.
Overall the new Evergrey is a great album with alot potential to grow on me. This disc is on repeat for the coming days.
☆☆☆☆½
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