Evergrey, Fractal Universe and Virtual Symmetry: An Electrifying Night of Polar Musical Opposites (2022)

Poba Last updated 13 October 2022

foto: SEBASTIJAN VIDEC 2022

Performers: Evergrey, Fractal Universe, Virtual Symmetry
Location: Ljubljana, Orto bar, Slovenia
Date: Sunday, October 9, 2022

Evergrey have finally made it to Ljubljana. These Swedish melodic progressive metallers — with a firmly rooted power metal kick they’ve made entirely their own through a distinctly dark, melancholic, and occasionally downright depressive atmosphere — have long been a highly regarded act on the local scene, with a solid and devoted army of fans who live and breathe their music. At this point, they’re slowly but surely earning the title of progressive metal legends, with roots running all the way back to the nineties.

Time flies. It wasn’t that long ago that Evergrey were playing Zagreb’s Močvara on the back of The Atlantic (2019, RockLine review), and then the follow-up Escape Of The Phoenix (2021, RockLine review) came along, live shows around the world opened back up — and that finally brought Evergrey to Ljubljana. With a brand new album in tow, their 13th studio record overall: this year’s »A Heartless Portrait (The Oprhean Testament)« — RockLine review.

For the new tour, Evergrey picked two support acts that sit pretty far outside their own musical orbit. Both brought something exceptional to the show. First up on the Orto bar stage, just after seven in the evening, were Swiss-Italian progressive metallers Virtual Symmetry, drawing their inspiration from the old school of prog metal — classic Dream Theater leading the charge — while still keeping their compositions tight and compact, which puts them in the same ballpark as Italian compatriots DGM, or Scandinavians like Seventh Wonder and Circus Maximus. Virtual Symmetry are a quintet led by their visionary founder, multi-instrumentalist and primary guitarist Valerio Æsir Villa. The band is methodical about their studio output — this year saw only their third album arrive, a self-titled record. Over a solid half hour or so, running through material from that new release (Butterfly Effect, Come Alive, The Paradise Of Lies) alongside older tracks (Exodus, Safe, Remember) from predecessor »Exoverse« (2020), the band presented itself as a tight, razor-sharp unit breathing entirely as one. They delivered just the right mix of technically complex virtuosic noodling and infectious (even bombastic) musicality — the sharp-as-nails instrumentalists backed up by standout vocalist Marco Pastorino.

Next to take the stage were Fractal Universe. What comes out of France frequently carries a whiff of musical eccentricity, even avant-garde maneuvering — and these guys are no exception. Fractal Universe are a breed apart, practically impossible to pin down with comparisons, if you can even find any. They brought their latest album »The Impassable Horizon« (2021) to Ljubljana. Progressive technical death metallers. Basically ‘musical professors’ who weave fascinating harmonic gradations and intricate phrasing into the vocabulary of extreme metal earthquakes, blend it with off-kilter rhythmic twists, have zero shame about openly flirting with jazz lines, and throw alto saxophones into their arrangements on top of all that. Between 2017 and 2021 the band put out three studio albums, and especially with the second, »Rhizomes Of Insanity« (2019), they served notice of their extraordinary development potential. Parts played with ‘the laser precision of filigree fine mechanics and strict technical discipline’ are punctuated along the way by longer, almost esoteric passages. The band doesn’t shy away from the vocoder or, as mentioned, the saxophone — though the latter was basically swallowed by the mix during the show. Progressive technicalities bordering on science fiction? If Virtual Symmetry gave old-school prog metal fans their fix, Fractal Universe had fans of the cutting edge in extreme, technically honed death metal — music that speaks squarely to the progressive crowd, people who dig acts like Alkaloid, Gorod, Rivers Of Nihil — absolutely buzzing. In short: for a lot of people, Fractal Universe’s Ljubljana visit was a jaw-dropper.

Evergrey are Evergrey. A thoroughly established and instantly recognizable name in the metal world. About 350 people made it out to Orto bar that evening. Sounds modest on paper, but they were ‘well spread out’. And among them were some seriously committed, fired-up, even fanatical fans. The front rows were scorching all night! Song after song, they bellowed and howled along to pretty much every word in the setlist — right alongside the frontman, chief visionary and driving force of the whole operation, vocalist and guitarist Tom S. Englund. A figure without whom Evergrey simply cannot be imagined. A fair number of that night’s attendees had made the trip to Orto bar from Croatia and Italy. The energy was something else. The charismatic Englund had no trouble forging a tight bond between band and audience. The set focused primarily on the two most recent albums, »A Heartless Portrait (The Oprhean Testament)« and »Escape of the Phoenix«, which together accounted for roughly half the entire setlist. Evergrey have built their sound on an incredibly infectious musical formula — one that always, without exception, develops along chord progressions rooted in minor keys. Melancholy and darkness have long held citizenship in the Evergrey universe. Englund’s excellent, instantly recognizable, deeply felt and passionate vocals deliver at least half of that melancholic atmosphere that hangs over everything the band does. By the time the band hit the Orto bar stage, the material — including the powerfully musical new album — had clearly been thoroughly absorbed by the faithful, and the biggest supporters greeted every single song announcement with relentless enthusiasm. Honestly though, the older material filling out the setlist did so in a fairly predictable fashion. No big surprises. The furthest back into the discography that Evergrey reached was with the anticipated The Inner Circle (2003) classic A Touch Of Blessing, and in the obligatory encore, Recreation Day (»Recreation Day«, 2004).

Evergrey are excellent live performers. The lineup has been stable for a good while now, and the chemistry on stage is top-tier — constant, intensely active communication between members throughout the set. Englund doesn’t miss a trick. The brilliant Henrik Danhag was also out there fully unleashing his guitar solo mastery. Bassist Johan Niemann had dynamite in his fingers all night. Drummer Jonas Ekdahl remains a completely sovereign figure — the rock-solid anchor the whole team can lean on at any given moment. In the first part of the set, Englund built his sound around his seven-string Caparison guitar. His vocals were on point. He and Danhag frequently trade guitar solos, though Englund does lag behind his colleague in pure technical terms — not that this stops him from laying down genuinely beautiful, well-executed lead guitar work. Keyboardist Rikard Zander drew the shortest straw in the sound picture. But throughout it all, there was a strong sense of performance coherence — above all in the way the band genuinely, wholeheartedly enjoys playing their own material. Englund also kept things lively with some storytelling, and the one that really stuck was the anecdote about bassist Niemann’s constant complaints that Evergrey won’t let him play guitar solos at shows.

Speaking of sound — it wasn’t exactly thrilling throughout the show. Englund’s vocals came through less clearly than they should have, and the keyboards in particular kept getting drowned out by the ‘noise’ of the guitar phrasing. You had to find the sweet spot. Which, of course, was right next to the mixing desk.

Evergrey’s set — full of energy, precision, and hard-won experience, and fueled by relentless, hungry interaction between the front rows and the band — flew by far too quickly. For the encore, the band members reappeared in freshly laundered, gleaming white shirts, swapped out for the thoroughly sweat-soaked black from before. The encore came loaded with three songs, and as they left the stage the band tipped off the assembled crowd to give them just 10 minutes — because what followed was a lengthy meet-and-greet with Evergrey, capping off a show that, for any true fan, was both deeply fulfilling and emotionally charged. Apart from a somewhat underwhelming sound mix, there’s barely a thing to fault it on.

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Sebastijan Videc

Fractal Universe setlist:
1. Sons of Ignorance
2. Oneiric Realisations
3. Symmetrical Masquerade
4. Scar Legacy of Hatred
5. Flashes of Potentialities
6. Fundamental Dividing Principle
7. A Clockwork Expectation

Evergrey setlist:
1. Save Us
2. Weightless
3. Distance
4. Eternal Nocturnal
5. Midwinter Calls
6. Where August Mourn
7. A Silent Arc
8. In the Absence of Sun
9. Call Out the Dark
10. My Allied Ocean
11. A Touch of Blessing
—encore—
12. Blindfolded
13. Recreation Day
14. King of Errors