THE STORM WITHIN

"The Storm Within" is the 10th full-length studio album by Swedish power metal act Evergrey. The album was released through AFM Records in September 2016. It's the successor to "Hymns for the Broken" from 2014, which by many is considered a comeback album of sorts, because lead vocalist/guitarist Tom Englund reunited with drummer Jonas Ekdahl and guitarist Henrik Danhage after a lineup turmoil in 2010 meant that those two left Evergrey. Apparently the marriage is happy again though because "The Storm Within" features the exact same lineup who recorded "Hymns for the Broken (2014)".

Stylistically the music on "The Storm Within" pretty much continues the anthemic power metal with a melancholic atmosphere, that Evergrey also played on the predecessor. In fact this is unmistakably the sound of Evergrey with Tom Englund's distinct sounding vocals in front, melodic and occasional thrash metal oriented guitar playing (the thrash metal riffs are more an influence rather than a dominant element of the band's sound), supporting keyboards for texture, and a powerful and tight playing rhythm section. The quality of the performances is high throughout. Here I'll have to give a special mention to Henrik Danhage's guitar solos. He is a brilliant guitar player, and his solos on this album definitely help elevate the music to higher levels.

The songwriting is generally top notch professional too. Tracks like "Distance", "In Orbit" (featuring Floor Jansen of Nightwish), and the atmospheric title track (which reminds me quite a lot of Anathema) are among the highlights, but "The Storm Within" is overall a pretty consistent quality release. The only track which doesn't quite reach the high quality of the rest of the material is the saccarine power ballad "The Paradox of the Flame" (a duet power balled with Tom's wife Carina Englund). When Evergrey touch that territory is when they are worst.

"The Storm Within" features a powerful, detailed, and well sounding production, which suits the music perfectly and upon conclusion it's another quality release by Evergrey. There's not much development of sound, and I could have done with a few more tempo changes as most of the tracks don't leave mid-pace, but on a whole it's still a very professional and well sounding release, and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating isn't all wrong.

This one got me by suprise. The pop/rock approach of the metalband really appeals to me. The songs have pop- structures (verse-chorus-verse-chorus-breakdown/solo-chorus-outtro) and great hooklines and actual lyrics with a message.

The band often reminds a bit of Nevermore but with more heavy vocals reminiscent of Spiritual Beggars and Grand Magus. The music is really heavy and riff-oriented. Heavy, distorted, lowtuned riffs with great double-basswork of the drummer, giving it a bit of a powermetal-groove, but not fastpaced and jumpy like most powermetalbands.

I like the gothic approach in some of the song, without being too much. I think that's the great thing about this band and this album, nothing here is overdone and it all sounds really balanced.

I must also praise the vocals skills of Tom Englund, it seems that Sweden boasts really great metal-vocalists. The Swedish approach of heavy metal had always grabbed me more than the american approach. Evergrey is a really solid and talented band that are actually capable of writing and playing actual songs that stick in your head.

I must really check out all of their other albums.