THE DARK DISCOVERY

Evergrey are the new proverbial, progressive metal "KING'S OF THE HILL". I know this is heresy, since C.W.(conventional wisdom) places Dream Theater on top of our imaginary hill and they certainly are worthy, but let's face it, they are getting a little stale. I don't want to talk about how mediocre Dream Theater's last few albums were and I certainly am not starting a verbal battle of the bands but Evergrey is new and fresh and exciting and intriguing and, well, SUPERLATIVE!!!! They are the KINGS!!!

I know you probably love Dream Theater. Hell, I do too, and maybe you also love Symphony X and possibly Shadow Gallery. They're all great musicians making great music but what I want from you, my readers, is to open up that skeptical thing you call a mind and entertain the remote possibility that I might know what I'm talking about and that these guys are the musical equivalent of the second coming of C.....

Now, I think many of you out there are already familiar with 'Our Grey Boys' and you know what I'm talking about, so my job with you is easier. You've already got In Search of Truth which was, hands down, the BEST PROGRESSIVE METAL ALBUM OF 2001 and probably their followup Recreation Day and you might even have their very strong sophomore effort Solitude*Dominance*Tragedy, so You're all primed for another good Evergrey album. Trouble is The Dark Discovery is not good, it's SUPER DUPER. Yes folks Evergrey's debut album is fantastic. In fact I Like it almost, as much as In Search of Truth. Some songs I like even more.

Who is EVERGREY

The Swedish dark progressive metal band Evergrey was formed in 1995 by singer/guitarist Tom Englund and guitarist Dan Bronell. Other recruited members are bassist Daniel Nojd, keyboardist Will Chandra and drummer Patrick Carlsson. They recorded The Dark Discovery in 1996 but it's release was delayed until 1998, where it got a very positive response from reviewers etc.

The following year they released their sophomore composition Solitude.Dominance.Tragedy to glowing reviews. Keyboardist Will Chandra had left the band and Englund assumed that role in addition to his other duties. Their music which had been described by some as demented or morose metal, was still gloomy but now taking on a little more classical attitude. The next two years saw a game of musical musicians where Nojd was replaced by Michael Hakansson and Sven Karlsson relieved Englund of the Keyboard duties, also Bronell was replaced by Henrik Danhage and most observers had an ominous feeling about the future of Evergrey. Thank god they were wrong or we would never have had a chance to hear their glorious masterpiece In Search of Truth. This is the unofficial prog-metal album of the year for 2001

The musical Mucicians continued with Chris Rehn replacing Karlsson who was subsequently replaced by Rikard Zander before their forth release Recreation Day and drummer Jonas replaced Carlsson afterward and that takes us to present.

The Dark Discovery

Of course, even though, I had the benefit of having heard all of Evergrey's newer albums first and kind of knew what to expect, this was their debut, after all, and my expectations were subdued. However it only took about three or four tracks to know that this album was not inferior to the other albums. This is a fine album in the classic Evergrey style.

And just what is Evergrey's style? Afraid you were going to ask that. Evergrey sounds like, well Evergrey. In truth Evergrey has their own morose, passionate, emotional, mysterious style that is heavy metal mixed with classical, truly unlike any other bands.

Tom Englund

You've probably noticed that founder Tom Englund is the glue that holds the band together. Well he's also the icing on the cake. Englund, whose voice is similar to but a little deeper than Rod Stewart, is the most emotional and passionate singer, along with Joe Cocker, I've ever heard. He gives life to the songs, he makes the songs soar. Although Evergrey's subject matter is dark, dreary and gloomy I don't really notice because the music is so glorious.

Summation

I would like to give this album five stars but objectively there is a couple weak spots, which oddly did not bother me but might bother other listeners.

Firstly, there seems to be a common thread linking the delivery of too many of the songs. While individually the song may be wonderful, as a group their similarity is noticable. This was more acceptible when I thought The Dark Discovery was a concept album, wherein each new song fed off the previous but apparently they feed off each other without the benefit of a story.

Secondly, some of the middle songs were not up to five star quality and even the inimitible Englund vocals could'nt make them so.

Similar Artists

As I intimated before no other bands sound like Evergrey, however the following bands do have similarities: Tad Morose, D.G.M., Threshold, Mastermind , Dream Theater and Superior