A new dawn for Swedish prog metal favourites
Artiste: Evergrey
Nationality: Swedish
Album: Hymns for the broken
Year: 2014
Label: AFM
Genre: Progressive Metal
Tracks:
The awakening
King of errors
A new dawn
Wake a change
Archaic rage
Barricades
Black undertow
The fire
Hymns for the broken
Missing you
A grand collapse
The aftermath
Chronological position: Ninth album
Familiarity: One or two songs. I have their discography but somehow have never been interested enough to listen to a full album.
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Ambient, spoken-word beginning that soon kicks into a high metal groove.
Best track(s): A new dawn, Wake a change, Black undertow, Hymns for the broken, Missing you, The aftermath
Worst track(s): Nothing
Comments: After the short intro, the anthemic
King of errors gets us out of the traps nicely, gothic choir working quite well on the slower but no less heavy
A new dawn with some truly biting guitar, and, well, some piano work reminiscent of, um, Bruce Hornsby? I’m not kidding here. The oddly-named
Wake a change slows things down for a bit with some super keyboard and piano but still enough heavy guitar there to satisfy any metal fan and a chorus to just keep repeating over and over. Great harmonies here and some fine use of keys.
That gothic feel is back for
Barricades, then there’s a dark, menacing edge to
Black undertow, very emotional, then we’re back off rocking with
The fire, including a children’s choir which actually fits in very well before the title track hits with a real slice of bombast and power. The first (probably only) ballad is a piano-driven effort, stark and haunting as
Missing you brings a real sense of class to the album. The last two tracks are over seven minutes long and both are quite epic in scope. The closer,
The aftermath begins as an acoustic ballad but surges near the midsection to become a really powerful curtain dropper.
Overall impression: Yeah, pretty damn good. I’ll need to check into these guys more.
Hum Factor: 6
Surprise Factor 7
Intention: Start working through the rest of their discography