Evergrey - Escape of the Phoenix (2021)^{Release ID: 26257}

Is it any surprise that Evergrey have been left behind by so many in the progressive metal/power metal scene's within the last ten years? As this band gets older, their power metal has become much slower and has been incorporating more prominent djent elements, meanwhile the bands very plainspoken progressive metal focus has become very tired over the years, and many have moved on to something that is more showoff-y and technically impressive.

But for those of us in the loop, Evergrey have been making some remarkably consistent albums over the past few years, even despite a brief hiccup with The Storm Within back in 2016. They did progressive pirate metal with The Atlantic in 2019 that almost made me forget that Alestorm existed. And following the bands thematic rain period, the ashes are now given their chance to burn brightly.

The question is how brightly do they light up the night sky? I would say about the same as the bands last album. This album is more brooding without going full on post-metal; many slower tracks that use gradual building through dynamics and melodic growth. You won't find much in the way of modulating time signatures or wank guitar solos. But the songwriting and the development of the melodic phrases and ideas from the band are well executed and never feel stale. Even on the albums worst moments, which I would argue are "Eternal Nocturnal" and "Run", they happen to feature unique song structures that still make them standout on their own. But most importantly, these tracks all sound like they belong together. There is no dramatic whiplash effect from one track to the next on this album. For a band to be able to pull that off with such efficiency is commendable. 

The albums weakest moments are less so full songs, but rather moments within each song. Some songs feature extended djent breakdowns which I was never a fan of on The Atlantic, the synth leads on this album sound like they have gotten worse since the last album, fortunately they only end up serving as minor speedbumps on songs like "In The Absence Of Sun" and "Stories". And while the bass/fundamentals on this album are very solid, it still suffers from the progressive metal/djent "problem" of having an overmixed kick bass drum.

But overall I do like Escape of the Phoenix. I think that Evergrey have fully recovered from their misstep of 2016 and have found themselves a very nice solid ground of easily accessible progressive metal, especially for those approaching this from a power metal background. The songs are nice and fluent, they never feel like they are overstaying their welcome, the album does not run out of interesting ideas, and it all fits together into a very nice package. It's a bit of a shame that this band has been so overlooked throughout the years. Perhaps we can help this Phoenix rise again.

Covered In Ash

For what it’s worth, I’m admittedly a fan of the new style Evergrey has broken into, starting with 2014’s Hymns for the Broken and, according to them, culminating with 2019’s The Atlantic. Slowly but surely Tom Englund’s riffs have been tuned lower and lower, to the point where I’d consider the tone and chug structures to almost be full blown Djent, but they’ve hung onto enough of their other keyboard and vocal performance aspects to become quite a unique group nowadays. Although there isn’t much progressiveness left in their sound, they’ve successfully carved their own little notch in a more anthemic, drop-tuned chug riff style that I think suits them rather well. I really enjoyed my time with The Atlantic so I figured that Escape of the Phoenix would be another solid album, given Evergrey’s relative consistency, but they may have repeated themselves a bit too much here.

I feel as though I was fortunate to skip over most of Evergrey’s 2010’s material, since I wasn’t as burned out by their relatively samey output when I checked out The Atlantic. Coming into Escape of the Phoenix with any sort of expectations kind of ruined it though, because this album is very much a direct continuation of their previous album without too much else going for it. Englund’s riffs and vocal melodies are as strong as ever, if not also predictable as ever. Even though it’s hard for me to hate their base sound, Escape of the Phoenix doesn’t have the same album progression that has gripped me on some of their previous releases. The riffs and choruses of “Where August Mourn”, “A Dandelion Cipher”, “Eternal Nocturnal”, "Escape of the Phoenix", and “Leaden Saints” stand out so much more than the rest of the album, while “Forever Outsider”, “Stories”, “In the Absence of Sun”, and “Run” fade into the background as mostly filler tracks. “You from You” works as the standout ballad and guitar solo and “The Beholder” surprised me immensely with a James LaBrie feature that actually sounds fantastic as both vocalists harmonize incredibly well with one another. If there's one win that I can take away from this album, it's that it gave me some modern day material that I can say LaBrie sounds fantastic in.

Escape of the Phoenix is very much a mixed bag, with the great tracks making the others completely obsolete in comparison. That being said, having 6 great tracks and 5 completely mediocre ones comes out to be a net positive in the end, so I can't be too upset. Evergrey had much better album flow than this in the past, with the nautical themes and stories of The Atlantic grabbing my attention much more than the same old musings about someone carving their own path through this treacherous world. Fans of Evergrey’s sound will definitely be satiated by all the catchy choruses and effective drop-tuned riffing, but Escape of the Phoenix left me feeling a bit empty. Englund’s admittedly great vocals can only write so many similar anthemic choruses until the charm starts to wear off, so I suppose I’ll have to see where Evergrey stands for me in a few years from now with their next one, because this one has already started to chip away at my patience.