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Origin:
Sweden

Band:
Vocals - Tom S. Englund
Guitars - Henrik Danhage
Bass - Michael Håkansson
Keyboards - Rikard Zander
Drums - Jonas Ekdahl

Bio:
Evergrey hails from Sweden and continues the long tradition of great rock-metal bands from that country. With each release, Evergrey leaves their own unique mark upon the listener while offering new and fresh diverse musicianship accompanied by earnest emotive vocals. Tom Englund leads the way with a striking presence as their front man. His range is extraordinary…jumping back and forth from dark and raspy to smooth and crystal clear intonations that will mesmerize and fascinate you. This powerful music leaves you no choice but to submit to its allure.

Evergrey’s musicianship is clearly beyond reproach as Rikard Zander (Keyboards), Michael Hakansson (Bass), Jonas Ekdahl (Drums), Tom S. Englund (Vocals/Guitars) and Henrik Danhage (Guitars) are a high-energy ensemble that attacks the music with relentless fervor. The previous album Recreation Day was dark and ominous with political and spiritual aspects sprinkled about it to make you think; The Inner Circle gives you much of the same, just cranked up another notch. Currently there are two new videos from the album in rotation on MTV’s Headbangers Ball, and with advent of a successful tour in the U.S.A., many doors have opened for them, growing their audience exponentially.

According to lead singer Englund, the premise of The Inner Circle is based upon the bashing of fanatics and fanaticism. It is about a person being convinced into becoming a full member of a cult and it describes how they strip him of his self-respect, individuality and self-esteem in order to make him live by the rules of a cult unconditionally. The concept could be taken from any of today's religious cults that feed off people’s insecurity and lack of belief in themselves. The theme of the album has a strong emphasis on our roles as human beings in this world and the struggle between good and evil, a storyline that has been around since the beginning of time. Welcome to good vs. evil 2004…welcome to The Inner Circle of Evergrey. Sonically the album is outstanding and a variety of styles are explored, and very successfully. The switching back and forth from soft acoustic passages with strings to sweeping power chords that ring loud and clear, make this a progressive metal masterpiece that will reverberate within your soul long after the CD is over.

The band reaches a more diverse cross section of listeners than ever before with this release. The actual storyline of the album is not from any personal viewpoints of band members, but the feelings put into the music are based on events that occurred in their daily lives, thus enabling them to compare feelings being felt throughout the story.

A lot of spoken word is intermingled amongst the tracks; they utilize a muffled microphone sound similar to what you would hear on TV from an evangelist gathering. Evergrey feels that since it is a concept album, the effect gives the album more of a motion picture feel and adds another dimension to the music, a vision for the inner eye if you will. That person of course being the leader of the cult, explaining his ways and beliefs throughout the album, and that keeps the story tied together. All of these impressions come rushing at you mightily, driven home with the building of the music behind all the vocals and spoken word passages, then each track reaches a crescendo and leaves you to ponder the journey you just took, and then another song begins to start the cycle all over again.

With The Inner Circle Evergrey is poised and ready to take their place amongst the greats in rock music. Their distinct sound and originality well surely impress the most discerning rock-metal enthusiast. The many disciples of Evergrey will love this album and more will certainly join the legions of devoted listeners once they hear the pure rock energy blaring out of their speakers.

Evergrey: “A Night To Remember” (Live double DVD)

The highlight of Evergrey’s Swedish concert hall tour from last year was a show in Gothenburg that had been prepared for some time. The auditorium of the 19th century Storan Theatre, with its wonderful ambience as well as a breath-taking light show, supported Evergrey’s merciless live performance. Seven cameras documented a powerful evening of progressive metal which is now being released as a double DVD. The DVD not only offers an impressive two hour concert with crystal clear Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1 DTS sound, but also six and a half hours of bonus material that will keep every fan happy. Fans will be able to view all six of the band’s promo videos, see extensive interviews with band members, behind the scenes footage of the band backstage as well as at work in the studio and a section on the band’s equipment for the more musically inclined fans.

“The curtain rose, we looked out from the stage into this wonderful theatre with its 160 year old architecture, three rows of balconies and into an audience which was so wild that we almost missed our cue at the end of the intro tape”, recalls Tom Englund. The band performed an impressive “best of” selection from their back catalogue – 19 songs from over six years with explosive numbers such as “Blinded”, “Recreation Day”, “As I Lie Here Bleeding” “Touch Of Blessing” and “The Masterplan”.

Evergrey’s development is an admirable one as the Swedish metal masters have consistently progressed with each of their recorded albums. Their enthusiastic debut “The Dark Discovery” was followed up by the acclaimed “Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy”, which caused a sensation amongst metal fans and the press. Their third album “In Search Of Truth” was an intriguing concept piece that was both musically and lyrically appealing. “The Inner Circle” was another conceptual work, this time based on religious fanaticism, which showed the band surprising audiences once again with an expressive and extravagant body of work.

The band also offered up a few surprises for their specially recorded performance in Gothenburg that can be seen on the DVD. A string section accompanied the band on the instrumental “When The Walls Go Down”. “Harmless Wishes” and “Essence of Conviction” from “The Inner Circle” album received their live debut and on the ballad “For Every Tear That Falls” from the band’s first album, Tom Englund was joined on lead vocals by his wife Carina Kjellberg.

Evergrey website :
www.evergrey.net