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EVERGREY
- The Tragic Domination of Solitude
By Alex Ristic
Heavy metal is a lot like Burger King -- "you can
have it your way." With that in mind, Swedish metal purveyors Evergrey
have gone about playing metal, their way, for the last five years.
Although incorporating several different styles into their multi-layered
extreme attack, Evergrey is widely seen as a power metal band with
some progressive leanings. Just don't tell lead singer and band
founder Tom Englund that.
"I'm not sure if I'd consider us power metal," said Englund, disagreeing
strongly, "but a lot of people do, so it might be then. As I said,
since we'd played death metal before, we just wanted to take the
darkness to the wall, and have some harsh riffs here and there,
but most of all we wanted to bring the melody back and the atmosphere
and stuff like that. And that's the way it turned out."
Well, how would you classify Evergrey's music then?
"I'd just call it metal," Englund insists. "Since we have such diverse
influences, from everything from Pink Floyd to, well, I wouldn't
say Deicide, no. I mean, for instance on this new album we have
a song called 'Damnation' that's quite brutal for being like a power
metal band anyway. Call it metal with a dark atmosphere."
Far be it for anyone to try to tell Evergrey what to do. Since their
breakthrough CD, Dark Discovery, the group has built up a following
worldwide, including on these shores where the band played a progressive
metal festival in Baltimore late last summer. It's their melodious
assault, coupled with an intensity not usually heard in bands of
their ilk, which has endeared them to many listeners.
Finally, and about three years later, their long-awaited follow-up
is set to be released on the unsuspecting public at large, in the
form of Solitude - Dominance - Tragedy. While new material is being
offered up to the band's fans, and new listeners as well, the same
relentless ferocity and melancholy lyrical themes are still intact.
Englund says the two releases are very different though.
"For me it's like night and day," comments Englund. "The thing is
that we had only played together for one and a half years when we
recorded the first album, so we hadn't really found our way yet,
and we hadn't decided, really, on what we wanted to do. This time
around, we've been playing together for four years, so basically
we have matured a lot, we have progressed a lot on our traditional
instruments, and me as a vocalist as well. I think we've found what
we wanted to do this time around. I think that the songs are better
and the lyrics are stronger. I think everything is better; the production
too."
While some may argue as to which of Evergrey's two albums are actually
better, no one can state that perceptible changes haven't taken
place, separating the two apart, most notably where the lyrics are
concerned. Englund clarifies, using the album title and the concepts
within to explain.
"Those three words (Solitude - Dominance - Tragedy) reflect back
on three songs on the album which comprise a story -- 'A Scattered
Me,' 'When Darkness Falls,' and 'She Speaks To The Dead.' Those
three are combined into one story, the story being a man who loses
his family in a fire. And after that, the story takes this weird
turn and his mind is all... Yeah, I think those three words really
reflect what's going on in the story."
Those three songs only incorporate one story from the CD, with many
of the others taking the listener in different directions. However,
all the songs have one central theme: solitude. While Englund won't
commit to writing a story around that particular idea, he says a
full-blown concept album for a future Evergrey release may not be
out of the question.
"The thing is, I've been starting to write one big fucking major
concept story for the next album," he admits. "It all depends on
whether it turns out good or not. If it does, then it would be like
a small book, so maybe, yeah."
You couldn't blame a person for thinking that one of the inspirations
behind Englund's writing style would be King Diamond, especially
with Andy LaRocque assisting in the band's production duties. The
answer, though, may surprise you.
"It's more likely that we get (inspiration) from Operation: Mindcrime
by Queensryche," corrects Englund. "But of course he must have influenced
us in some way or another. He's King Diamond, and we've been brought
up on the King Diamond albums."
And so the tale begins of how LaRocque and Evergrey joined forces,
beginning a strong friendship that Englund says still exists today.
"I work in a music store where I mend guitars and shit," he relates,
"and I met Andy there when he was mending guitars in between tours.
We got to talking, 'cause he's got his own demo studio, and we recorded
our first demo there with him. It only felt natural to keep on working
with him after that, because he really got us our first contract
anyway. Nowadays, we're like friends, and we visit each other for,
like, coffee and shit every week. Our families are like buddies
too."
Other inspirations for Evergrey also come from fellow countryman
Yngwie Malmsteen, whose old rocker 'Rising Force' the band recorded
for a compilation tribute album that was recently released. Only
available in North America on import at the moment, many of Evergrey's
fans won't be able to get it unless they shell out the dough.
"You should be glad," laughs Englund about the subject. "It's fucking
bad. I mean, I'm satisfied with our song, but a lot of the songs
are maybe recorded on an 8-track portable studio and it sounds like...aw,
man, I can't even describe it. It seems like most of the bands just
wanted to be on a tribute album and didn't put a lot of effort into
making it sound good. There were like four or five bands that maybe
sounded good out of I don't know how many bands. It's quite bad.
We always thought, me and Dan (Bronell, guitar), that it was one
of the best songs ('Rising Force') they did, from that album anyway.
It fit my vocal range too, even though we tuned it down to D. I
like the harmonies, and it's quite an easy song too. We didn't do
too much with it. We just altered the riffs in between the chorus,
and the last chorus. We had to play triplets, instead of 16th notes.
But it sounds fast anyway."
Evergrey's lessons and inspirations have come from the past, but
now that they have two albums under their belt what can be expected
of the future? Englund says he doesn't know enough to predict what
is to come, but he knows what the band can offer, and that there's
a home for their music in many a CD player.
"This time around, I know we have fans from around the world in
every metal scene," he proudly states. "We've got death metal fans
and power metal fans and even HammerFall metal fans. And we have
people 45, 50 and 60 years old being our fans and buying our albums
and stuff. I know that we really appeal to almost anyone, more or
less -- people can find something on the album that really appeals
to them."
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