I sit here in awe of the “Song A.” I honestly believe it's some of the darkest poetry I have heard put to music in a long time. The song builds in three parts and the intensity rises each time. The first minute of the song sets the mood immediately. It's just two acoustic guitars providing more depth than most songs provide entirely. The nylon string scratches not only show great production work, but come off as they are bleeding. Tom's voice is as strong and as haunting as ever, yet he keeps things totally somber to match the intro. The second part is a transition into the welcome return of the piano riff enveloped with the atmospheric keys. The vocals turn it up a notch by adding harmonies and the vocal punch of conviction. The power is there, yet still a tad restrained. The acoustics return toward the end and you can just feel the crescendo building. The final segment is the money shot. The crunch hits, the drums pound, and the bass thumps. Carina and Tom remind us why they are the best one-two punch in the metal chorus world. The musical tempo continues to varies (reminds be a bit of the "In Search of Truth" days). You also get two distinct guitar solos...the first with some warm and soaring leads while the second works the shit out of the fret. "..along with memories of things I've done to you that will never come undone Can't stop my world from burning down, these flames are all my fault When the ashes fall from heaven, they fall as my confession...." It's one of the best songs Evergrey have ever written. ****** “Song B” is the other song I can share with you. The one thing that you notice before you even start it up is a running time of 6:25. The three minute songs of “MMA” are nothing but a memory now as the road back to the abyss has come full circle. The song hits you in the nuts from the go with the trademark Evergrey riffing before calming down. However, the keys are back adding that extra touch that was missing from “Torn.” The first verse/chorus portion has more in common with later day Evergrey with one exception: lyrics. There’s a lot of words to digest here folks. It would appear that the “commercial” aspects have been chucked out the window as I don’t see the average metalhead singing along here. The second verse portion starts after a nice bass bit and the song starts building again with the returning crunch adding another layer. Chorus changes up in that lower harmonies are added that seem to emphasize the lyrics even further. It’s basically the opposite of the happy go lucky traditional type power metal chorus. And now…welcome back the ‘Grey prog baby. A blistering 35 second guitar solo is followed by some heavy duty atmospheric keys and slow, soaring guitar leads. The tempo builds and the head-banging crunch returns to blessedly kicks my ass. It’s a full 90 seconds of instrumental bliss before the warm chorus returns with Carina this time! That’s three melodic verses with three different styles. The song abruptly closes down with a beautifuly piano melody. Fucking A.
Sounds like this will be a return to what made me fall in love with Evergrey back in the day. I love everything from In Search of Truth to The Inner Circle. The live DVD is one of the best metal DVDs to have ever been released. Then MMA came out and I thought it was horrible (still do). Torn brought me back to Evergrey but only for about half the album. It usually takes 2-3 consecutive bad releases for me to completely lose interest in a band. This will be the album that will either bring me back to my Evergrey fanboy days, or it'll put the nail through the coffin. I strongly hope the latter option is not the case. Now Glenn, a question for you. Based on what you heard so far, how much influence is there from the new members in the songwriting/performance aspect? Brilliant!
I wrote Tom about this a couple of weeks ago, and all he will say is "November." But of course, SOME people get the material a lot earlier. I hate you. I love you. Adopt me and let me at your music please!
But we have to take this review with a grain of salt, because we know you are an Evergrey fanboy. I look forward to it though.
I make no apology for that, for Oliva, or anyone else that I truly enjoy. It has served me well over the past decade.
Glenn, Hating to be the one to ask where it stands amongst the other discs, but is it a 'return to form' in a sense? Your descriptions seem to indicate it is, but I also assume you enjoyed MMA and Torn. I don't expect bands to rehash their previous work (that's a bit boring). But the last two just haven't done much for me at all.
Hope for the best, but I've learned to expect the worst from EG, as they've fooled me three times (RD, MMA, and Torn. The days of SDT, and heck, TDD are long past. Of course, this could change based on the answer to the question: How much does Carina sing on the new album? Sometimes, I'm petty for the right things.
I'm looking forward to this new album! With that said, I didn't have a problem with the last two that everyone else seems to continuously bitch about. ~Brian~
