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SOLITUDE - DOMINANCE - TRAGEDY

Evergrey

Progressive Metal


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Evergrey Solitude - Dominance - Tragedy album cover
3.52 | 92 ratings | 12 reviews | 17% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 1999

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Solitude Within (5:33)
2. Nosferatu (5:41)
3. The Shocking Truth (4:35)
4. A Scattered Me (4:18)
5. She Speaks To The Dead (4:59)
6. When Darkness Falls (4:52)
7. Words Mean Nothing (4:13)
8. Damnation (3:52)
9. The Corey Curse (5:23)

Total Time: 43:28

Bonus video on 2004 SE:
10. The Masterplan (4:45)

Line-up / Musicians

- Tom Englund / vocals, guitar
- Dan Bronell / guitar
- Daniel Nojd / bass, backing vocals
- Patrick Carlsson / drums

With:
- Carina Kjellberg / vocals, choir arrangements
- The Mercury Choir / chorus vocals
- Zachary Stephens / keyboards
- Erik Ask / harp
- Stuart Wyatt / 6-string violin

Releases information

Artwork: Samuel Durling with Kristian Wåhlin (logo)

CD Gothenburg Noiseworks ‎- GNW05 (1999, Sweden)
CD Inside Out Music ‎- IOMACD 4045 (2004, Germany) With a bonus Video

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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Buy EVERGREY Solitude - Dominance - Tragedy Music



EVERGREY Solitude - Dominance - Tragedy ratings distribution


3.52
(92 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(17%)
17%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(45%)
45%
Good, but non-essential (26%)
26%
Collectors/fans only (7%)
7%
Poor. Only for completionists (5%)
5%

EVERGREY Solitude - Dominance - Tragedy reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Greger
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars This album is the second from the Swedish band EVERGREY. Their music is melodic and progressive power metal with orchestrated pieces with harp, violin and choirs. It's all tied together by narration and spoken lyrics. Intelligent, inspiring and interesting music that takes you through many different moods and emotions. Their music is a mixture of DREAM THEATER, KING DIAMOND, PARADISE LOST, QUEENSRYCHE and RHAPSODY, with elements from Classical, Folk, Gothic and Opera music. The compositions have a high standard throughout the entire album with strong melodies. - The highlights are the opening "Solitude Within" with magnificent keyboard playing and violin, "Nosferatu" with it's choirs and orchestrated parts, "The Shocking Truth", "She Speaks To The Dead", "When Darkness Falls" and the ballad "Words Mean Nothing" with great harp playing. The only thing I can't really get used to are the raw vocals. They aren't bad, sometimes really good, but I can't really decide whether I like them or not. - The album has a beautiful artwork of artist Kristian Wahlin. It's produced by KING DIAMOND guitarist Andy LaRocque. I think that this is one of the better albums of 1999 in this genre. A beautiful, dark, heavy and excellent album all in all and it's growing with each listening.
Review by The Prognaut
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars I consider myself not a very interactive prog metal individual, but I got to recognize when I first discovered EVERGREY I flipped head over heels. I also think it's appropriate not to compare this Swedish band with top prog metal bands since EVERGREY has slightly infiltrated into the prog scene yet quietly and impressively. Tom ENGLUND's powerful devoted voice takes us to unthinkable parameters between what is considered prog and what's not, and with this I speak up for heavy metal influences. Some of the pieces described on the album may appear even darker and multifunctional for metal purposes that the others, but certainly all of them, follow a unique tendency that makes the CD so rich and didactic that could be appreciated even by the most exigent proggers in general. "Nosferatu" stands out from the record, with very interesting rock proposals; but that's in my perception just the beginning to complete this EVERGREY's second production experience. Convincing essence, convincing music, ride on this album!
Review by semismart
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Tom Englund and company followed up their exceptional debut album, The Dark Discovery with their equally exceptional sophomore effort Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy and with this recording the the groundwork was set for the absolutely stunning In Search of Truth.

Replicating the sound and style on The Dark Discovery, Evergrey relies upon their dark, gloomy, powerful, melodic, feeling of urgency and adds an even more demanding sense of urgency to the music. Inclusion of keyboards, strings, female backing choirs, cellos, harp, modify their heavy metal sound and give their music a full lush sound that continues to pummel the listener with crunching, power chords and the high octane singing of Tom Englund.

The album opens with "Solitude Within" a blazing guitar crunching number and while the guitar are chugging, first a piano joins in and then Englund with his emotive style and always the darkness is present. Evergrey does a variable tempo on the next song "Nosferatu" which starts out slowly quickly building up tempo while violins and lady singers back Englund. "The Shocking Truth" starts out with the following monologue with continuing monologues throughout:

["we have evidence of a superior culture out there] [they come from ...god knows where] [maybe from outer space] [maybe from some other dimension of existence..."]

The music is a medium slow pace atmospheric dark piece where Englund is in obvious agony over his real or perceived plight and it's this darkness touched by beauty that gives this song so much emotion. "All the battles that I've fought and lost When I'm asleep they come All the screams that I've screamed unheard A week wounded soul"

The fourth number is musically similar to the first track, "A Scattered Me" is a song with religious overtones "God you were my Judas Your deception killed my belief God you were my Judas Your deception..."

"She Speaks to the Dead" is maybe the most powerful of the songs with a variable tempo, whining guitars and is again about religion or the occult; "Father She speaks to the dead And I'll crave her confession Cause she speaks to the dead"

"When Darkness Falls" starts out very slow, dark and ominous working up to a fast almost speed metal pace and varying back with choir in the background. "Words Mean Nothing" is a ballad and "Damnation" and "The Corey Curse" picks up the speed again with similar dark haunting medium paced melodies.

CONCLUSION

Having reviewed all five of their current albums I have no doubt that Evergrey is going to be a force in the progressive metal music field for many years and though their sound is currently unique, it won't be long before other bands pick up on their success and try to emulate these Swedish prodigies. If you are new to the dark world of Evergrey, you may want to check out their older releases as well as they are equally good.

Fact is there is not a half star difference between their first album through their fifth.

Review by AtLossForWords
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars Overrated by metalheads, but underrated by prog fans, is this true?

Evergrey is a band where reviews are often mixed. From so many metalheads, I will hear how they are one of the best Prog Metal bands, and from Prog fans I hear they aren't prog. Is one side right, are both sides wrong, or are both sides right?

Evergrey's Solitude.Dominance.Tragedy was a breakthrough release early in the band's discography. The listener can expect a dark atmosphere with prominent guitar melodies, atmospheric keyboards, and the pure shread solo. This sounds like a great formula for a metal album. Some parts of the album are quite impressive, while others seem to be bland trying to further push the dark atmosphere.

The vocals are of a dirtier metal style. Tom Englund's voice still seems to be in development and more monotonous than later albums. It's not very clear, and it's not richly harmonized, but for a standard of a solid metal voice, it gets the job done.

The guitars are definately the musical highlight of the album. Englund and Bronell trade melodies back and forth and compliment each other's solos exceptionally well. The riffing is heavy with a few tracks showcasing some clean playing in support of keyboard melodies. The tonality is a bit weak for a metal album.

The keyboards are not virtuosic, but they contribute to the dark atmosphere of the album, and take a more prominent role in softer songs.

The bass is good by metal standards. The listener will find much more than simple root note chords and accents here. Daniel Nojd does a great job of finding ways to fill space inbetween the guitars and drums. It's not technical bass playing, but it does require some musical skill and creativity.

The drums are somewhat disappointing. There's a lot of double bass and not a lot of fills. The drums groove to keep the time, but never seem to be important to the album. The double bass repeatition shows a lack of creativity on part of the drummer.

There is no particular song that really brings feeling or distinctiveness to the album. It's a solid metal effort, but it lacks it's progressive sophistication. The album has some fine progressive elements of atmosphere and melody, but lacks other important elements like structure and technical precision. The guitars can quite easily entertain the average listener, but the rest of the band fails to show much skill.

The production is not very good. The guitars as I noted earlier are somewhat weak. The tone lacks the depth needed for a metal album. The drums despite their lack of interest have strong tone. The bass is somewhat prominent in the mix, but seems to be missing a little low-end. The keyboard synths are extremely conventional and uncreative for a metal band, but don't sound bad or weak. The vocals lack clarity, but that may enhance the metal edge they have. It's not bad production, but it isn't particularly good.

It's a solid progressive effort from a metal band, but certainly lacks key qualities. It seems both fans are wrong about this album. It's not exactly progressive, but it's not to far from being so. It's worth two stars, but not more than three, average album at best.

Review by hdfisch
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Due to its dark overtone Swedish band EVERGREY's music was appealing to me right from the beginning when I purchased this album here a few years ago (and still does). Nonetheless it never managed to become one of my true top favourites. Why is that since they are sounding heavy and rough (thanks to Tom Englund's voice), highly melodic and atmospheric at the same time? The quite simple answer is that their music just lacks one very important criterion called variability. If you've listened to any album from them you've heard all of them more or less and actually even the individual tracks of a particular record are all structured in a very similar way. Usually their albums are centred on a certain story becoming quite obvious since most of the tracks are starting with spoken words. So far I didn't take care too much in detail of their lyrics and after a quick view I'm actually not quite sure if it's really rewarding. But I like very much the way they integrate keyboards and choirs into their sound, all the time rather as a spicy implement without ever becoming too bombastic at any moment. Guitar, bass and drums (though none of them are being played on a very high level I've to say) are the dominating instruments in their music. The tracks are alternating between heavier and mellow (acoustic) sections in a very enjoyable and tasteful manner with some tunes of violin, piano or harp here and there. Highlights of this disk here are certainly "Nosferatu" demonstrating very well what I mentioned above about integration of orchestral elements as well as the non-typical ballad (for a metal band) "Words Mean Nothing" featuring some harp and violin. But actually there isn't any really weak track to be found on here just as mentioned already they're all sounding rather uniformly.

To summarize my review I would consider "Solitude + Dominance + Tragedy" a very good powerful and intense dark metal album with a rich orchestral sound suitable for an occasional spin but not for too many repeated listens. I'm not sure at all whether this one or any of their albums can be considered essential for a Prog collection but certainly good for a rating of 70% I would say.

Review by Prog Leviathan
PROG REVIEWER
2 stars As far as Evergrey albums go, "Solitude" seems like a collection of songs which-- in retrospect-- sound like slightly inferior warm-ups to their later, more polished and exciting releases. Still, it makes a fine purchase for dedicated fans of the band's dark sound.

The songs are well-played and heavy on crunchy guitar, with enough dynamic gusto and interesting divergences in effects and instrumentation to make them a cut above their metal contemporaries. Englund's voice seems to be the dominant (and perhaps most likeable) sound in the mix, and his dark, foreboding phrasing and growls are infectiously fun to listen to. However, the album's production makes the bottom a little muddy, and the repetitive sound of the guitar will definitely take its toll on the listener's attention by the album's conclusion.

As a whole: fun for a few listens and important for their future releases, but not solid enough for all but the dedicated fan.

Songwriting: 3 Instrumental Performances: 2 Lyrics/Vocals: 2 Style/Emotion/Replay: 2

Review by UMUR
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars "Solitude Dominance Tragedy" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Swedish heavy/power metal act Evergrey. The album was released through Gothenburg Noiseworks/Hall of Sermon in May 1999. It saw a reissue/re-release through Inside Out Music in 2004, which is probably the version most people are familiar with. "Solitude Dominance Tragedy" succeeds "The Dark Discovery" from 1998 and there´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as keyboard player Will Chandra has left. The keyboards on the album are therefore handled by session musician Zachory Stephens.

The album was recorded at Andy LaRocque´s Los Angered Recordings in Gothenburg, Sweden, and was produced by at LaRocque and Evergrey. The result is a powerful, clear, and detailed sounding production, which suits the material perfectly.

Stylistically Evergrey continue to play their brand of power metal with progressive leanings. "Solitude Dominance Tragedy" is one of their most progressive releases, although this is arguably more power metal than progressive metal. The music occasionally features some pretty hard edged thrashy riffs and a couple of chuggin heavy riffs too, which put Evergrey in the US power metal camp, but their omnipresent use of keyboards and epic lead guitar themes/harmonies (and very well played solos) pull them towards the Euro power metal camp, so they are actually a bit hard to place right. The overall atmosphere of the album is pretty dark and gloomy. Lead vocalist/guitarist Tom Englund has a very distinct sounding voice, which is a bit hoarse, but he sings both melodic and slightly more rough.

I could have done without the power ballad "Words Mean Nothing" (which after a slow and saccharine coated opening, thankfully ends on a stronger note), but the remaining 8 tracks are all high quality power metal. The album opens on a strong note with the trio of tracks "Solitude Within", "Nosferatu", and "The Shocking Truth". The latter featuring several spoken samples from interviews with people claiming they have been abducted by aliens. A theme the band would further explore on their next album "In Search of Truth (2001)". Other highlights include "She Speaks to the Dead" and the hard edged "Damnation", but as mentioned above all tracks are well written and effectful.

Upon conclusion "Solitude Dominance Tragedy" is a giant step forward from the rather mediocre debut album (which also suffered from a poor sounding production job). It´s a high quality release through and through, and Evergrey were definitely on to something special with this one. They have a unique and easialy recognisable sound although they use tried and true musical elements, it´s the way they combine the elements and also the unique quality of Englund´s voice and his melancholic delivery, which make Evergrey stand out on the scene. a 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)

Review by Bonnek
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars SDT is a good improvement over the debut. Evergrey continued their dark take on prog metal with improved production standards and another set of impressive metal songs.

The sound isn't perfect yet, the drums especially are a bit dry and the overall balance is a bit strange, the vocals don't sound integrated and the keyboards are a bit too much to the fore. But this imperfection give this album a rough edge, something they would unfortunately polish up on later albums. This is an organic and sincere sounding album, something which I always find quite an achievement in metal, which usually suffers from too loud and overstressed productions and unwaveringly high volume levels. Evergrey sounds dynamic and rocking.

Evergrey do not avoid another typical metal feature though. All songs follow the same pattern too much to make a real claim at progginess: upbeat, aggressive and dark riffery, with touches of symphonic keyboards and graced with the wonderful tattered voice of Tom Englund. Given the consistently high quality of the songs the predictable song writing is not a real problem though. 3.5 stars

Review by b_olariu
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars Second release of this well known prog metal band from Sweden, released in 1999 named Solitude, Dominave , Tragedy. Well, I might say I liked this one, but not a single album from their catalogue has the magic and solid , great ideas as are on In search of truth, to me that album is a masterpieces of prog metal. Good dark prog metal, with good vocals and all, but something is missing to really be a powerful release in prog metal field. Here and there some power metal passges take over but combined with that typical scadinavian prog metal parts the result is ok most of the time. The best track is opening one Solitude Within, the rest are more or less ok, but not one is bad in the end. 3 stars maybe 3.5 stars for some arrangements.

Latest members reviews

4 stars This is as great album, and it's such a shame that the production quality of later albums isn't present here. The music itself is fantastic--probably five stars quality--with lots of quality instruments, passionate and sincere vocals, and solid musicianship. The style is what you'd expect fro ... (read more)

Report this review (#2936824) | Posted by Idaho | Saturday, July 1, 2023 | Review Permanlink

3 stars The sophomore album of Swedish dark prog metallers Evergrey is a massive improvement over their uncertain debut album, The Dark Discovery. Released only one year after that album, Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy follows closely in the footsteps of its predecessor, but manages to fix many of the pitfall ... (read more)

Report this review (#2527615) | Posted by lukretio | Wednesday, March 24, 2021 | Review Permanlink

4 stars In this release,Tom Englund had explored a dark vein that i particularly appreciated.Especially in some tracks,like "Nosferatu","Scattered Me",the guitars ruled an essential role.The intro of "Scattered Me",with the radio converstions and the dark riff(Tom was genial to use the delay,but i don't ... (read more)

Report this review (#100271) | Posted by Kill Fede | Friday, November 24, 2006 | Review Permanlink

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