Review by Xephyr for Evergrey - Escape of the Phoenix (2021)

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.