GLORIOUS COLLISION

In the not to distant past Evergrey has released some amazing albums, most notably 'In Search of Truth' in 2001, but with this album they've seemed to leave it behind them and by doing so this album is a little weak. Granted, I still really like this album, but I definitely think that it could be better. The songs are quite simple for most of the time, and the couple of songs that are very good get drowned out by the rest. Also 'Glorious Collision' seems to be a little repetitive for its hour long time span.

Of everything on the album, my favorite thing would probably have to be Tom Englund's, which sounds a lot like Fish, from Marillion. Being the huge Marillion fan that I am, this adds a lot to the album, especially on songs such as 'The Phantom Letters' and 'Free'. His voice blends in very well with Evergrey's sound, and is a lone highlight on most of the songs. If I were to just listen to the first couple of songs this album would hold no interest to me at all, but, thankfully, the last six songs are really good, and salvage the album. Starting with 'The Phantom Letters', 'Glorious Collision' takes off on a new, and better path that would interest a listener much more than the first half.

The keyboards on this album, played by Rikard Zander, are very good and highlight the melodies very good with their lighter sound. That's the one cool thing about Evergrey that has stayed the same; they know how to infuse different genres into their music. In the past they have released both progressive and power metal albums, and, in my opinion, 'Glorious Collision' is a good mixture between the two. With more progressive sounding songs such as the ballad '...And The Distance' and 'Free', they show their diverse talent, while they also show they can get the job done with nice, heavy power metal songs like 'Frozen' and 'I'm Drowning Alone'.

The production is very polished, and almost too perfect, but I find my self liking it. Englund's voice sounds great with it, and the guitars sound pretty good, too.

While hardcore Evergrey fans will probably be disappointed with this new release, there's not too much to complain about. It has great musicianship, wonderful choruses, and great melodies. I found myself liking this album a lot, but as I said before, if you're just getting into Evergrey this might not be the place to start. I got this at around the same time I got 'In Search of Truth', my first introduction to Evergrey, and it was amazing at the difference. For their good, yet lacking release Evergrey gets 3 stars.

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