A DECADE AND A HALF

EVERGREY is the Swedish songwriter and singer Tom Englund first and foremost, who has produced eight studio albums so far, assisted by a bunch of changing musicians. He just had renewed his crew to produce the current workout 'Glourious Collision' which is pretty good. Not even one year later this compilation has been released on Steamhammer/SPV consisting of 24 songs, some of them presented live - a representative cross section of all the albums since they started with 'The Dark Discovery' in 1998.

Melodic power metal is the name of the game here, I would say - there are a lot of bands which bear a stronger prog essence. At least five songs are extracted from 'The Inner Circle' (2004) - this could mean Eklund himself considers this one the band's masterpiece (so far). They exemplarily represent the bandwith reaching from fierceness to sentimentality. Tom's unique and expressive vocals have a large share of course, similar to Daniel Gildenlöw maybe who dominates the Pain Of Salvation albums. Carina Englund's voice could have been much more present though, when she appears it's always a pleasant contrast.

With the previously unreleased unplugged versions of Wrong and Frozen they have a special offer for the hardcore fans - the originals are both featured on the current album 'Glorious Collision'. Besides the excerpts taken from this effort some other exceptional songs are the powerful live version of Blackenend Dawn while showing some symphonic appeal, Solitude Within including violin support and the emotional A Touch Of Blessing which I can remember from the past.

'A Decade And A Half' comes like a retrospective view going back through EVERGREY's musical history. For the first time I had the chance to get an overview music-wise. So I dare to say that their current regular album sounds a bit different. Okay, there is a new line-up of course, that makes sense. Overall Glorious Collision sounds more polished towards AOR, less raw, appeals to me more. The question remains: why exactly are they offering something like a best-of-compilation at this point? Don't intend to speculate, but I'm quite sure Eklund won't quit, does not intend to close this chapter. Never mind, here we have a proper collection of melodic metal tunes, every album is taken into account. A serious offer for newcomer who intend to explore the band's floor.

A nice compilation album!

Evergrey are a Swedish prog metal band who has been kicking asses since the latter 90s, since then, they have maintained in the scene in spite of the different line-ups, worth mentioning that for their last studio album released in 2011, they had a new line-up with three new members, along with older ones such as Rikard Zander and of course, Tom. S. Englund. In the same 2011, but later in November, the band released through Steamhammer/SPV a compilation album that celebrates "A Decade and a Half" of Evergrey's music.

Here they offer a commemorative 2-CD album in which 24 of their most representative songs are featured, songs that let us have a retrospective journey through their eight studio albums released so far, and with three tracks taken from their "A Night to Remember" live album. One of those three songs is "Blackened Dawn" which was originally released in their first album entitled "The Dark Discovery", so that is actually a classic of the band, and I love the live version they included here.

Though the band is catalogued as a progressive metal one, I would say their spectrum is wider because we can also listen to some power metal themes, and even some more hard rock oriented ones. In this compilation we will listen to songs from their different line-ups; die-hard fans will really enjoy this and will surely have nostalgic moments, remembering their favorite songs from their favorite albums and favorite line-ups. The first CD starts with "The Masterplan" a cool catchy track from their "In Search of Truth" album. Some other songs featured here are "More than Ever", "A Touch of Blessing", "Broken Wings" (taken from older albums), and "Frozen" from "Glorious Collision". The CD finishes with an unreleased live unplugged version of "Wrong", nice.

And in the second CD we will have eleven tracks that will keep our metal mind satisfied with tracks such as "The Great Deceiver", "Wrong" (studio version), "Solitude Within", "Recreation Day", the live versions of "Wake up Blind" and "When the Walls go Down". This CD finishes also with an unreleased live unplugged version, this time of "Frozen", which makes a softer but very nice ending. What I like of this compilation is precisely that mixture of studio songs with some live highlights, and with those two new live versions that close both CDs.

This is a good commemorative album that I am sure will satisfy most Evergrey fans, and that can also work for people who want an introduction to the band, and though a studio album is always the best introduction, this compilation may be cool for beginners.

Enjoy it!