Evergrey torn megaupload

The blazing twin leads of "These Scars". The grooving bridge guitars of "Soaked". The prog metal outbreak of "Still Walk Alone". Yeah, I know, the song titles again Thankfully, it's not. Evergrey occupy a rather unique niche which appeals to fans of the heavier side of progressive metal like a Dream Theater if they were nowhere near as complex and modern power metal. Torn is in my opinion the best they have to offer, so if this sounds hot then it probably is.

Certainly, this year, a star is shining for the veteran Swedish Metal act, Evergrey. These guys reached another milestone on their way to becoming one of the best in their field. Since their formation in , Evergrey became one of the icons of Dark Metal music. Their lyrics are full with desperation along with sadness, betrayal, loss of hope, inner and outer fears and religious meanings. Their music is also dark and sometimes mysterious with a lot of keyboard atmosphere, heavy and low riffs and heart breaking solos, especially on this release which is one of their heaviest material, whiny, sometime on the verge of crying, and vocals with plenty of depth.

All of these traits assist in creating the picture that is forevermore grey. Characteristics here include the heavy sound of B tuned guitars that drive through the album with deep and heavy riffs and cracking solos. The difference between this sound and the other bands mentioned is that Evergrey chose a sound that can be related to their way and fit their needs. One thing that is irritating on this album is that there is a small resemblance, regarding the songs themselves, to some of their old material.

Surely fanatic fans will pay attention to this mild aspect that surrounds this piece. Then there are the vocals. Vocalist and guitarist, Tom Englund, is one of the best vocalists of this sub-genre.

This man can teach many vocalists in Heavy Metal on how to really express their emotions in their songs. Although sometimes his voice can get a bit whiny, it really helps him spread his words and to reach out to the hearts of the listeners, he has created his own vocal style with the depth of Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden.

His voice is one of the main reasons that Evergrey, with all their darkness, successfully formed something that is truly unique since the beginning of their career. Torn presents almost a full release of equally excellent tracks. It has a good title to it, but more than half of it is a boring and almost unbearable rhythm.

Many address Evergrey as a Progressive Power Metal act. Torn is living proof for this anecdote. Evergrey gave it all this year and many of their fans can be proud of this release and with hope that they will keep on doing it with hearts full of emotions and heaviness. Now this is also something that Nocturnal Rites found themselves doing just 1 year prior, but here the results are not merely mediocre, they are downright revolting.

Almost none of these songs are memorable, despite being pulled off fairly well and having a rock solid production. With a couple of exceptions, this trifecta of repetitive groove riffs, gothic keyboard overtones and metalcore mannerisms in both the songwriting and vocals remains constant. But as a whole, this is a veritable mountain of unmemorable, depressed, boring trite. Originally submitted to www.

Beautiful, emotive and brilliant; Evergrey has reached their fullest potential, and Torn is shimmering proof of this. From the early, atmospheric sounds of The Dark Discovery and Solitude - Dominance - Tragedy to the strong progressive undertones of albums like In Search Of Truth and The Inner Circle to, even, the heaviness of Monday Morning Apocalypse, Evergrey have explored themselves pretty thoroughly which, of course, is quite evident by their catalog.

I will admit that, with Monday Morning Apocalypse, though I did enjoy it, never quite "hit the spot" the way all of their other albums did; this, of course, created some wonder about Torn seeing as it was the follow-up to Monday Morning Apocalypse and all, however, any potential anxiety and doubt I could have had about it has been erased, completely.

For starters, one of the most fantastic things about Torn is that it truly ties into their entire catalog; the ethereal, eerie guitar melodies, the bitter heaviness, the highly emotive vocals as well as the lyrical themes , the vertical rather than horizontal compositions Of course, and without saying really, this is just my theory, however, the album really "feels" this way and I can't help but to embrace the feelings Torn evokes on this matter.

Musically, and compositionally, the album truly shines as being a progressive masterpiece in the sense that Evergrey is progressive which, needless to say, means that this does NOT sound like Dream Theater thankfully.

The songs are concise, emotionally driven and heavily, heavily layered; every time you listen through the album you will find a little tid-bit here or there, some distant keyboard wash or some floating, ghostly guitar line lingering beneath the surface, that all add to the monumental structure and atmosphere of the album.

The longest song on the album, the closer, is just shy of six minutes thus, needless to say, this album as with all of Evergrey's albums, really is not progressive in the traditional sense; if you do happen to be looking for 25 minutes songs, look elsewhere, for Evergrey defy traditional progressive metal the same way a band like Pain Of Salvation does.

It is extremely difficult to pin-point specific songs as being better than others since, as with the rest of the band's catalog, the material is very much meant to be listened to as a whole although, despite this, we are also given an album that works on the opposite end as well: you can randomly play a song and, with whatever track you may get, you're delivered a flawless Evergrey number with just as much merit of being a great song as, lets say, a "classic" from an album or a "hit".

Now, needless to say, I do have a couple personal favorites so I will run by those quickly: Fail, for one, is just absolutely incredible - the clean guitar is beautiful, the build-up throughout the song is simply phenomenal and the personal emotions it invokes flow up like tidal-waves I may go as far to say this is the best Evergrey song although, meh, that will probably change in a month anyway.

Still Walk Alone is extremely dynamic, plodding along at a fairly slow pace in the beginning then, during the mid-section, we're delivered speed that could be found in the initial Gothenburg scene; needless to say, it's extremely effective.

The title track is an extremely sensitive and solemn number and, like with Fail, is easily one of the band's best songs; the lyrics are beautiful and bitter, showcasing a life that I am sure many of us could relate to on many levels, if not completely, and it all just, well, works.

Can I find anything wrong with this record? I suppose this throws me into fanboy territory now, however, I cannot think of one thing to gripe about; the length of the album as well as the songs is perfect in context of what Torn is all about, the production is flawless, the vocals and lyrics, as always when dealing with Mr. Englund, are incredible and, when coming down to the music, well, it's Evergrey at the top of their game, at the top of their sound and dynamic - Evergrey has never sounded so Evergrey and, with that, I can only give this album a stunning for, well, a stunning and perfect effort.

Evergrey's like this guy who you were tight with back in the day, fun to hang out with now and then and awesome to catch a show with, even if his company did get a little monotonous over long stretches. Then a couple of years back, people were talking about how he'd made some bad decisions and lost focus in general.

Dawg's gotta find his own way. Anyway, you just caught up with him a little while back, and turns out the guy's back in the saddle. Good call there. After the hiccup that was Monday Morning Apocalypse, the guys take a big step to redeeming themselves with Torn.

It's hard to nail down exactly what has changed — in fact, if you compare the album openers from both albums, the basic choruses are almost identical. It's just that MMA had a bit of experimenting with different styles and ideas and hardly any of them really worked, while Torn falls back on to tried and tested methods to good effect. They've regained that distinct big sound from albums like Recreation Day and The Inner Circle, playing to their strengths and ballsily belting out catchy progmetal tunes with great, tight playing and fat, faintly muddy guitar tone just the way we like it with some tasteful ripping leads thrown in for good measure.

Tom Englund has sounded better, but he's still not all that shabby. Versatility has never been Evergrey's strong point, but that's nothing to be ashamed of. Even more, sometimes. For me it's like painting a picture with words. I see really clearly what it's about; it's a world for me. As with everything Englund does, he had a very clear concept in mind. What if it doesn't want to come back? That sort of resembles things in life; sometimes you get tired of standing up and being strong.

I guess that was the main idea. It came to me after we'd finished writing the music.