A HEARTLESS PORTRAIT (THE ORPHEAN TESTAMENT)

Originally written for theprogmind.com

What I'm going to say here should surprise no one: I love the new Evergrey album. In all honesty, I hate giving out "10/10" ratings, as I base my ratings on various factors, one of which is my trusty gut. And my gut tells me, without a doubt and practically from my very first listen, that A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) will go down as one of Evergrey's greatest records. The album releases on May 20th through Napalm Records.

Sweden's Evergrey, in my view, are the unsung heroes of a more emotional type of metal. They've been making music since 1995, and have journeyed through various eras in their sound. Well, the band has recently signed with Napalm Records, and so a new era begins here. In my view, Napalm is the best possible place for them. The lineup is unchanged from the last few records, being Tom S. Englund on vocals and guitars, Henrik Danhage on guitars, Rikard Zander on keyboards, Johan Niemann on bass, and Jonas Ekdahl on drums.

The band is finding themselves inside what some might call a renaissance of their own sound. The last few records, in my opinion, are almost unparalleled in their entire career. In fact, I named 2021's Escape of the Phoenix my "album of the year" a few short months ago. It's almost surreal that they are back again so soon. Typically, that would concern me, as there are few bands that can release albums back to back, at least without adding filler or without losing some passion along the way. Evergrey, though, has perhaps more passion than ever, it seems. How does a band achieve this almost 30 years into their existence?

I have listened to A Heartless Portrait at least 25 times since the promo dropped into my inbox a month ago. I have scrutinized. I have criticized. I'm rather cynical by nature, and so I needed to be convinced. Not only does this album hold up to anything the band has created, I can detect subtle changes in the band's approach, in how they want to express themselves. There is more playfulness and teamwork in tone, but also complexity and difficulty in the level of music. They take the "Orphean" part of the title seriously, taking us on a winding odyssey through a personal underworld in entrancing and melodious fashion.

On the surface, this album represents Evergrey's sound well. It has the dark emotional content, the fantastic twin guitar attack, piercing and melodramatic keys, and a rip-roaring rhythm section. The melodies are haunting and little spacey, and the songs are well-written and tightly guided by veteran minds and hands. But I feel a change in the band's energy and vocal delivery, and maybe even in the way their vocal melodies are composed. Tom has been working with his side project Silent Skies, which features his purely emotional vocals up against piano work, and that stripped down setting has apparently awakened something within Tom. His vocals here are perhaps the best he's every provided for Evergrey, with far more elongated notes, creative twists, and complicated harmonies than ever before. It feels potent and fresh to my ears, especially considering that this band is my favorite metal band ever. How can a band turning 30 years old soon still create such awe for me?

I'll admit that this is the album I needed right now. After a tough couple of months mentally, hearing a new Evergrey album has awakened me from that proverbial slumber. There are certain songs on the album, too, that already feel part of my very soul. It started with the first single, "Save Us", a grand and almost spiritual experience. My kids even took to the song. Soon, we received "Midwinter Calls", a song with more reservation and subtlety in its veins, but also with a knockout of a vocal hook that I absolutely love. Finally, "Blindfolded" arrived, and the kinetic energy within its chorus and music video is enough to whisk anyone away to deeper worlds.

Those three songs aren't even the best on the album, though. I would point to "Ominous" and "The Great Unwashed" as my favorites. After hearing "Ominous" a few times, I had to message Tom (something I don't typically do because I try to respect a musician's space). Anyways, I told him that the song is a "brilliant, weird, and addictive" song, and I still feel that way. He replied that it is "absolutely his favorite" from the new record. Seems I was on to something. The rhythms are completely outside the box, the hypnotic background voice at one point reminds me of something from Recreation Day, and the song feels like trying to find your footing on the cusp of something that will change your life forever. At its core, though, "Ominous" is a hyper-melodic, expressive song, one that uses all these elements to feel limitless and deeply personal. Every time I hear it, I still can't believe how good it is.

"The Great Unwashed" took more time for me, but I can't get enough of it now. This song always makes me feel free, almost unchained at heart. I love the smooth-as-butter chorus, the spellbinding guitar work, and the inherent drama of it all. It feels spacey and cosmic to some degree, as well.

I love every single song, though. I really like "Call Out the Dark" for its powerful confidence. It follows the crazy "Ominous" with a tight and catchy melody that only this band could write. I love the heavy and haunted "The Orphean Testament", the energetic "Reawakening", and the emotional space of "Heartless". That last one has such a gorgeous atmosphere and one of my favorite choruses on the record. Finally, the one and only ballad is the closer, "Wildfires". No one does ballads like Evergrey, and this doesn't disappoint. There is a cavernous well of emotion here, like spreading fire literally and metaphysically. This song, to my ears, could easily have been on the recent Silent Skies record, it has that level of beauty and tender expression.

Maybe I'm just an Evergrey fanboy, but I'm definitely unashamed of that fact. Evergrey has never made a weak album for me, and A Heartless Portrait is simply more striking and commanding evidence that they are the best metal band in the world. I'm not afraid to say that. How can a band almost thirty years old still hook me with such fervent reflection and inspiring presence?

With Escape of the Phoenix still hot off the press, dark metal maestros Evergrey are set to release a new full-length album, their 13th to date, on May 20th via Napalm Records. The writing of A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) started almost immediately after the release of Escape of the Phoenix, with the same line-up comprised of singer/guitarist Tom S Englund, guitarist Henrik Danhage, keyboard player Rikard Zander, drummer Jonas Ekdahl, and bass player Johan Niemann. Inevitably, the new album inhabits similar sonic territories as the previous one, to the point that in interviews frontman Tom S Englund jokingly referred to it as "Escape of the Phoenix Part II". But if you are worried that the record's 10 songs may just be leftover material from the Phoenix sessions, let me reassure you: although the two records share similar strengths and weaknesses, on balance A Heartless Portrait is even stronger than its predecessor.

Once a herald of dark progressive/power metal, over the years Evergrey have gradually morphed their sound into a highly developed form of modern metal, rich as much in melody as in heart-breaking melancholia. Nevertheless, the band's prog metal heritage is still lurking there somewhere in the Swedes' musical brains, and it helps them sidestep the cardinal sin of many modern melodic metal albums: an excess of emphasis on vocal melodies at the expense of musical substance. Evergrey combine the big, soaring melodies and simple song structures of the genre with a satisfying barrage of muscular riffs, sophisticated arrangements, and virtuoso leads and solos, which allow the music to be much more than mere background for the vocals. In a handful of tracks, the riffs and arrangements get really exciting, like the intricate guitar lines of "The Great Unwashed", or the brilliant solo duels between Englund, Danhage and Zander on the title-track.

The high dosage of solos is probably one of the most striking and engaging aspects of this record. In nearly all songs, Englund and Danhage take turns to provide beautifully melodic and suitably virtuoso guitar leads, with Rikard Zander interjecting a few trailblazing keyboard solos in a couple of tracks too. It's a nice touch that wasn't perhaps so much prominent in Escape of the Phoenix and that brings me back to the "classic" ol' metal sound of yesteryears. For the rest, most of the spotlights are on Englund's beautiful and emotive vocal performance. The man has one of the most distinctive and instantly recognizable voices in metal: gravelly and powerful, yet warm, passionate and full of yearning. He is a spectacular singer, who can transform each melody into a heart-rending masterpiece.

The album contains several strong tracks, fuelled by inspired songwriting and excellent melodies. In fact, I am prepared to go out on a limb and say that some of the songs included here are among the best Evergrey have written throughout their whole career. The title-track is a muscular tour de force that takes heads on the listener with one of the heaviest episodes of the record, before softening into a beautiful middle-8 that paves the way for a fantastic trio of solos by Englund, Danhage and Zander. "The Great Unwashed" features a great, proggy riff and a strong chorus, while "Blindfolded" is a dark and brooding piece that creates a stark contrast with the serene, semi-acoustic album closer, "Wildfires". You may have noticed that most of the songs I mentioned so far appear in the album's second half. The first half also contains some good tracks (good luck in getting the chorus of "Call out the Dark" out of your head), but is somewhat weaker and less explosive than the second-half. Tracks like "Save Me", "Midwinter Calls" and "Ominous" are in all respects decent and pleasant, but they sound a tad too generic and fail to stand out as much as other songs here. The same goes for "Reawakening" and "Heartless", two tracks that veer dangerously close to the filler status.

This alternation between first-rate and second-rate songs is a frustrating feature of many recent Evergrey's albums, and this one is no exception. Fortunately, the scale here is definitely tipped in favour of the better tracks, which is why I think A Heartless Portrait is a stronger album than its predecessor. However, looking at the bigger picture and putting the album in the context of Evergrey's discography, I must say that A Heartless Portrait does not add much to the previous 3 or 4 releases by the band. This is Evergrey doing what they do best, without changing much their sound or taking any risks. When the music is as good as this, it's hard to complain. Nevertheless, I am left slightly underwhelmed by this album, because I always look forward to being challenged by the music I listen to, especially when it comes from one of my favourite bands that I have been following for over 20 years now.

Ultimately, I suspect that how much you will like this record probably depends on how much you are bothered by listening to slight variations of the same musical formula album after album. If that is something that bothers you a great deal, subtract half star to my rating. If that does not concern you, add a full star. Regardless of the final score, A Heartless Portrait remains a top quality product from one of the most talented bands out there. In a market oversaturated with thousands of mediocre new releases, this cannot be but a highly recommended listen.

[Edited from original written for The Metal Observer]

I have been a fan of Sweden's Evergrey for more than 20 years, and although they have had quite a few line-up changes in their history, singer/guitarist Tom S. Englund has always been there while the return of guitarist Henrik Danhage and drummer Jonas Ekdahl in 2014 means that alongside Rikard Zander (keyboards) and Johan Niemann (bass) they have had the same line-up for eight years which is the longest period of stability in their existence. Recently they have also been upping their output as well, and this is the third studio album in four years. Mind you, increasing output has not seen a reduction in quality as there is no doubt, they are producing some of the finest music within their 25-year history.

Everygrey are a metal band who use keyboards to provide emphasis and more of a symphonic feel but are fully progressive in their use of intricacy in all instrumentation, complex time signatures and songs with very differing sections. They also have a strong sense of space and contrast, so while there are times when everything is hitting us at once, like a metallic sledgehammer with little in the way of remorse or let up, there are others where it is far more delicate, and the concentration instead is on Tom's vocals. This use of contrast ensures that the heavy seems heavy and the quieter sections much lighter, moving between bombast and restraint.

This is a very heavy album, yet also very commercial, which makes it a very easy album to listen to as even when played at seriously high-volume levels it makes perfect sense and never overpowers. There is a great deal of finesse within this, as well as plenty of brutality which is always tempered with a softer edge. Evergrey just keep getting better, and even if you have never come across this prog metal act before now, this is a great place to start.