Search - Evergrey :: Solitude Dominance Tragedy (Spec)

Going for the Cycle

Mr D. | Cave Creek, Az United States | 02/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Well I've got the hat trick in Evergrey reviews, so I may as well do their fourth album and get the cycle. For those of you who are confused by my terms, I'll explain, the hat trick is a sports term, primarily used in hockey as a term signifying the event of one player scoring three goals. The term has since evolved to be used in other triplicate events and I have written three Evergrey reviews. Get it!



Ok, Evergrey has one more brilliant album left, their 1999 sophomore release, Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy, and of course the cycle is a baseball term for getting all available hits in a game, ie a single, double, triple and a homer, so hopefully this review is a hit.



Tom Englund and company followed up their exceptional debut album, The Dark Discovery with their equally exceptional sophomore effort Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy and with this recording the the groundwork was set for the absolutely stunning In Search of Truth.



Replicating the sound and style on The Dark Discovery, Evergrey relies upon their dark, gloomy, powerful, melodic, feeling of urgency and adds an even more demanding sense of urgency to the music. Inclusion of keyboards, strings, female backing choirs, cellos, harp, modify their heavy metal sound and give their music a full lush sound that continues to pummel the listener with crunching, power chords and the high octane singing of Tom Englund.



The album opens with "Solitude Within" a blazing guitar crunching number and while the guitar are chugging, first a piano joins in and then Englund with his emotive style and always the darkness is present. Evergrey does a variable tempo on the next song "Nosferatu" which starts out slowly quickly building up tempo while violins and lady singers back Englund. "The Shocking Truth" starts out with the following monologue with continuing monologues throughout:



["we have evidence of a superior culture out there] [they come from ...god knows where] [maybe from outer space] [maybe from some other dimension of existence..."]



The music is a medium slow pace atmospheric dark piece where Englund is in obvious agony over his real or perceived plight and it's this darkness touched by beauty that gives this song so much emotion.

"All the battles that I've fought and lost

When I'm asleep they come

All the screams that I've screamed unheard

A week wounded soul"



The fourth number is musically similar to the first track, "A Scattered Me" is a song with religious overtones

"God you were my Judas

Your deception killed my belief

God you were my Judas

Your deception..."



"She Speaks to the Dead" is maybe the most powerful of the songs with a variable tempo, whining guitars and is again about religion or the occult;

"Father

She speaks to the dead

And I'll crave her confession

Cause she speaks to the dead"



"When Darkness Falls" starts out very slow, dark and ominous working up to a fast almost speed metal pace and varying back with choir in the background. "Words Mean Nothing" is a ballad and "Damnation" and "The Corey Curse" picks up the speed again with similar dark haunting medium paced melodies.



CONCLUSION



Having reviewed all four of their current albums I have no doubt that Evergrey is going to be a force in the progressive metal music field for many years and though their sound is currently unique, it won't be long before other bands pick up on their success and try to emulate these Swedish prodigies."

Evergrey is a master of progressive metal.

Parker Buessow | Sequim, Washington USA | 04/24/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My first time listening to Evergrey came when they were supporting at an Iced Earth show that I went to in Seattle. They were pretty good live, so I decided to buy their "Solitude Dominance Tragedy" album for the heck of it. I was pleasently surprised when I put the cd in my cd player, this band is exellent! Tom Englund is a powerful song writer and he clearly displays his talents on this band's second release. While this album is dark and heavy, Tom's vocals add a lot of emotion into the mix. I like every song on this album, but my favorites are: "Solitude Within", "Nosferatu" "The Shocking Truth", and "When Darkness Falls". Highly recommended for fans of "Blind Guardian", "Sonata Artica", "Symphony X", etc..."

Miracle

Jadalla I. Khazaal | Dubai, UAE | 08/30/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, this was the last album I purchased after listening to all 4 albums of Evergrey. I have to say this record has something to it, it has a completely different atmosphere. So many songs on this record are so powerful in meaning and in music, listening to them atleast 20 times is not enough at all. Having the preachers voices in the background in a couple of songs defenitely touches souls in some way or other.



5 Thumps Up!!!"