EVERGREY
“The Atlantic”
Progressive / Melodic Metal
AFM Records (2019)
Mature, passionate, emotional, heavy release that I am sure will satisfy all the true fans of this band. The album with which once again, as in the best times, the band demonstrated its power and proved its greatness.
During their long and rich career, Evergrey had their ups and downs. Luckily more of the first. After one of the downs, a new journey has begun. A spectacular return of the favorite line up of the band with “Hymns For The Broken” in 2014. The story continued on “The Storm Within” in 2016, which I have to admit I didn’t enjoy that much. The journey is now rounded up with the album in front of us. “The Atlantic” is not only the best in this conceptual trilogy, it is probably also one of the most memorable and complete albums in their whole discography.
It’s never easy to review an album by a band you love. When you are a fan, a certain bias must exist with a small amount of fear when you are listening to the album for the first time. When you are a reviewer, you have to listen to it many times in order to fully absorb it and bring the objective opinion. The best things happen when you join these two. With each subsequent listening I caught myself enjoying the album more and more. That was it, the one and only Evergrey. With each new listen, the shy singing and singling out mild favorites among the songs turned into singing loudly each song, word by word, trying to outsing Tom, with inevitable headbanging. An amazing feeling.
Evergrey are masters of the dark, heavy atmosphere and on “The Atlantic” they raised the famous Swedish melancholy to an even higher level. Mainly, thanks to Tom’s incredible singing. I swear, I never heard him sing like this! This is the vocal performance of his career. Perfect and more emotional than ever.
The eleventh studio album of the Swedish legends is as fierce as it is progressive and melancholic. This album sees the band as a whole triumphed. The leading single “A Silent Arc” has one of the heaviest intros the band has ever written. Tom’s cries lead the song into the chorus where the melodramatic feel is in perfect harmony with a heavy instrumentals. “Weightless” quickly became my personal favorite, an abnormally catchy bridge and chorus that just begged to sing out loud. The album reaches its emotional with “All I Have”, not only because of the incredibly emotional and honest vocals that leave a mark on the soul, but also the heartbreaking solo.
The magic does not stop here. It actually culminates in the phenomenal “A Secret Atlantis”. A short instrumental “The Tidial” splits album in two. Although the later part leaves a slightly milder impression, the beautiful “End Of Silence”, the whispering wave of melancholy in the form of “The Beacon”, and the fierce conclusion of “The Ocean”, are by no means undermined by the other tracks on the album. On the contrary. Each is sufficiently complete and strong to stand in its own and it is really difficult to extract the strongest or weakest links. However, as a whole they function perfectly.
On “The Atlantic”, Evergrey finally came to life after a long time. A mature, passionate, emotional, heavy release that will, I am sure, satisfy all the true fans of this band. Those who are not as well, if they just give them a chance. This is an album with which once demonstrates the band’s power and proved its greatness, as in their finest days.
“The Atlantic” track list:
01. A Silent Arc
02. Weightless
03. All I Have
04. A Secret Atlantis
05. The Tidal
06. End Of Silence
07. Currents
08. Departure
09. The Beacon
10. This Ocean
Sažetak
Mature, passionate, emotional, heavy release that will, I am sure, satisfy all the true fans of this band. The album with which once again, as in the best times, band demonstrated its power and proved its greatness.
