Evergrey – Glorious Collision

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SPV/Steamhammer
Produced by Tom S. Englund

When Evergrey frontman Tom S. Englund croons that “we are liars and vultures, rapists of the weak” on To Fit the Mold from Glorious Collision, it sounds like he’s singing not just for himself and his bandmates but for the entire world. More impressively, we’re inclined to agree with him.

Such is the power that an unearthly baritone grants a man. By the time the song’s chorus rolls around, Englund brings us around to his perspective even more with some well-placed poignancy: “We’re scared we’ll amount to nothing and we change to fit the mold.” He speaks for us, but we’ll allow it because he’s so right.

Of course, this is not atypical of an Evergrey song. More than most metal lyricists, Englund focuses on communicating atmosphere through lyrics. This is a band who wrote a concept record about a man who joins a religious cult that condones child molestation (2004′s The Inner Circle), so they know a thing or two about the painful emotions inherent in the human experience.

This is also a band that covered pop singer and fellow Swede Dilba for one of its biggest hits, 2003′s I’m Sorry, so they know a thing or two about melody, as well. Were they not so sonically distorted and lyrically tragic, the album’s opening one-two punch of Leave It Behind Us and You would be staples of rock radio. More than just Englund’s powerful voice drives these songs; it’s the combination of that voice with his expert guitar work and the ever-present keys of longtime ivory-tickler Rickard Zander. The second guitarist, bassist and drummer are all new to the band, but the integrity of the Evergrey sound is strong enough that it sounds as though they’ve been there since the band’s advent.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of Evergrey’s modus operandi is its ability to integrate an intuitive knack for melody into relatively complicated song structures. Indeed, the finest moments of Glorious Collision come in its most varied songs: the aforementioned To Fit the Mold, album closer …And The Distance, and what may be the best song the band has ever written, The Phantom Letters.

These songs take everything Evergrey is great at – tunefulness, pathos, complexity – and put them together in a way that seems not forced but simply logical. They’re so convincing that even as Tom S. Englund calls humanity out for its ugliness, he puts his hand on its shoulders and convinces it that everything is going to be alright. Here’s hoping he’s not wrong.

“ tunefulness, pathos, complexity ”

Tracklist: Leave It Behind Us / You / Wrong / Frozen / Restoring The Loss / To Fit The Mold / Out of Reach / The Phantom Letters / The Disease… / It Comes From Within / Free / I’m Drowning Alone / …And The Distance

Written by Brad Sanders
More: 2011, Albums, Progressive, Evergrey