It’s been a long, long wait for Swedish Progressive Metal veterans, Evergrey, to make their way up to Newcastle in the North of England. Almost 25 years after they first formed in Gothenburg and 13 albums later, they finally made it and certainly did not disappoint.
With Jonas Ekdahl’s huge drum kit and Rikard Zander’s keyboards pretty much filling the entire backline, there wasn’t much space on the rather small St. Dom’s stage for singer/guitarist Tom Englund, guitarist Henrik Danhage and bassist Johan Nieman.
After playing some of the biggest venues and festivals across Europe, St. Dom’s transported Evergrey back to their early days of super small clubs with the fans right up close and in their face but they responded accordingly and delivered a set that clocked in at almost two hours, covering material from 2003’s Recreation Day right up to their recently released A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) and everything in between.
Kicking off with new song “Save Us” was a bold move but such is the quality of their recent release, it’s a song that fits seamlessly in amongst their long-established classics as did the other three songs from the album with the hypnotic “Midwinter Calls” sounding particularly impressive.
With the St. Dom’s stage being so small, there wasn’t much scope for stagecraft or special effects but fortunately none of that was matters as Evergrey can easily stand on their music alone, whether it was the beautiful ballad “In The Absence Of Sun” or the melodrama of “Call Out The Dark”, they were nothing less than compelling.
Englund’s rich, powerful voice brought some intense, soaring melodies to the granite heavy riffs aided and abetted by Danhage and this is where Evergrey tower over many of their peers. While others may prefer to stretch out and show some flash musicianship, Evergrey’s focus is on the song, dynamics, atmospherics and above all, melody. This is none more evident than on the classic “Recreation Day” and set closer, the stunning, dramatic “King Of Errors”. Utterly brilliant making the long wait more than worth it.
Review and Photos By Mick Burgess
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