Evergrey - In Search of Truth

1. The Masterplan (4:37) 2. Rulers of the Mind (5:57) 3. Watching the Skies (6:39) 4. State of Paralysis (2:15) 5. The Encounter (4:44) 6. Mark of the Triangle (6:24) 7. Dark Waters (6:04) 8. Different Worlds (5:32) 9. Misled (6:16)

Total Running Time: 48:29

It is incredibly perplexing to witness how a country that has nothing but a minor national market for a genre of music and approximately nine millions of people manages to bubble like a boiling cauldron with an entire generation of quality bands that ravenously carve through every nook and corner of that genre's possibilities. The subjects here are Sweden, heavy metal, and a specimen chosen among the select elite of what is in itself an elite among the metallic peers spread across the world. The main dish for the evening this time around? Evergrey.

Spiraling in relentless flight with what is a relatively somber and sometimes technically dazzling take on power metal, this Swedish quintet has really nailed it big time with its third album, In Search of Truth. Leaving the much abused and misused paths of melodic power metal that are still coveted by young bands on the rise, and instead focusing on dark minor passages, melancholic moments of desperation, and a gorgeous sense of epic grandeur has by now proven to be a winning formula for Evergrey, and the fuel is certainly not running out anytime soon.

With Henrik Danhage's guitar locked firmly onto the path of Tom Englund's, Sven Karlsson's keyboards flying through quick licks at one moment and all of a sudden switching into more atmopsheric mode, and even a full chorus adding a grand sense of drama to the entire ordeal, there really isn't anything more that one could ask for. In Search for Truth is an elaborate journey through the desperation, loneliness, and abuse of a man who firmly believes that he has been abducted by extraterrestrial life and continues to be haunted by it, with the music surrounding the story surveying the threatening, the despairing, and the forlorn. An unshakable focus leads every riff like the exacting hand of a brain surgeon, the balance between instruments is picture perfect, and each moment of the story is etched into musical exactitude that coexists with emotion in faultless harmony.

What perhaps may still escape the expectations and imagination of the progressive power metal crowd is the fact that this departs somewhat from the standards that have been set for the genre. The emotions explored are somewhat unorthodox, the music has a darkly sullen edge despite its epic proportions, and the band in general is basically going down a slightly different lane. Bringing a new lease on life to power metal may have hindered this Swedish act in its initial efforts to reach a wider audience, but in the end it is the innovators and true craftsmen that are remembered, not the whining and copying poseurs that abound in millions. If something is right with the world, Evergrey will be among those remembered.

-by Marcelo Silveyra

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