SOLITUDE - DOMINANCE - TRAGEDY

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.