Label: Napalm Records
Release date: May 20, 2022
Production: Jonas Ekdahl
Album length: 50.20 min
Genre: Progressive Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
Evergrey, the gloomy Swedish progressive metal stronghold, have been showing unmistakable signs of creative stubbornness in recent years. In a mere four years they’ve piled up three studio albums. The one before this, »Escape of the Phoenix«, came out in February 2021 (RockLine review), and it’s now been followed by their 13th studio album, »A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)«. Can we even talk about, or fret over, keeping up credibility here? Sure. And in Evergrey’s case it clearly comes as easy as breathing. Especially in the band’s latest era. The new album is once again fascinating and thrilling in every way. It’s packed with new, hugely musical ideas soaked in melancholy, ideas that can delight every last follower of this band, one after another, with feather-light ease. Wait, of the band? Of anyone who digs a seriously heavy, massively atmospheric groove combined with hypnotically infectious musicality. In short, the drama theater of atmospheric bombast that Evergrey know how to capitalize on, or showcase, so effectively on their studio records.
The new album »A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)« is no exception. The opener alone proves it, the razor-sharp, dark and ferociously aggressive Save Us, followed by one of the album’s most musically commanding and ignition-ready tracks, Midwinter Calls, with one of the most inspired and unbelievably gripping choruses on the whole record. A song born for the concert stage. A song every Evergrey fan will happily sing along to in unison once they find themselves at one of the band’s shows. So that the whole thing doesn’t ‘copy’ too much from its predecessors »Escape of the Phoenix« and »The Atlantic« (2019, RockLine review), there’s Ominous. Hugely atmospheric and played at a slower tempo, with an arrangement that veers a bit away from the melancholic marching the band’s pomp is otherwise famous for. A similar detour in the songwriting shows up on The Great Unwashed in the second half of the album, which only confirms that the band never stops creatively. The closing ballad Wildfires, just under four minutes long, also stands out, serving as a sensible way out of the album, or a way of rounding it off. Then there’s the excellent, all-in-one epic that is the title track (The Orphean Testament), the longest on the record. It has a seriously dynamic arrangement and fascinating mood swings, as the band trades off between faster, more aggressive parts and calm, atmospheric, especially gripping passages.
The communication within the quintet remains fascinating on the new album too. The solos stay inventive and sparkling, measured out with a masterful balance between complex combinatorics and listenability. The guarantee of such convincing musical expression across an album lies in the stability of the quintet’s lineup. And with »A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)« Evergrey prove their incredible songwriting unity and inspiration once again. This is the band’s fifth consecutive studio album released with an unchanged lineup. Eight years of that kind of harmony. A team that sticks together, in other words. Tom S. Englund remains vocally fantastic. His vocal tone, his approach, and the nature of his songwriting are of course the band’s essential trademark, and on the new album too they put the band and its work well ahead of the pack, in a special place in the progressive metal universe. Englund doesn’t skimp on fervently soulful, deeply felt delivery of the verses. Few come close to him when it comes to passion. Especially when you stack up Scandinavian metal vocalists against each other.
Musicality, or rather catchiness on first listen, dominates the other elements of the album this time around too. That’s why you occasionally get the feeling that Evergrey are more a seriously dark power metal band than a progressive one. The line is often cleverly blurred. Let’s say they once again walk the border between the two genres with great skill. But everything they take on carries the distinct pedigree of the band’s own dark and melancholic atmosphere. One such simple yet incredibly distinctive and infectious moment on the album is captured, for example, in Call Of The Dark.
Enough pondering. After »Escape of the Phoenix« (2021), which showed some excessive similarity to »The Atlantic« (2019), to the point where you could argue Evergrey were repeating themselves idea-wise, the 13th studio album »A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)«, released just over a year later, is an achievement that’s the most powerful of their last three records, the sharpest in production, let’s call it the most aggressive and metallically ‘revamped’, even though the band keeps an impeccable feel for ultra-musical catchiness, embodied above all by the sheer voltage integrity of the tracks Save Us, Reawakening, Blindfolded, Heartless.
Fans of the band couldn’t ask for more. The chorus melodies grab your attention every single time. In every track. Just like always. »A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)«, coming out in an extremely short time after its predecessor »Escape Of The Phoenix«, is once again full of fascinatingly polished compositions. A new album with just the right amount of arrangement variety, marked by the quintet’s brilliant playing chemistry and another excellent vocal performance from Englund, and full of brilliant flow between complex (mid-eight) passages and musical verses and choruses. The latter is a guarantee of deep hypnosis on first listen. With the new album Evergrey remain a strong figure on the modern progressive metal scene. »A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament)« also boasts the unique atmospheric aura of its own that Evergrey are famous for. In terms of the maturing of these elements (production included), this is one of the most accomplished albums of their career.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Save Us
2. Midwinter Calls
3. Ominous
4. Call Out the Dark
5. The Orphean Testament
6. Reawakening
7. The Great Unwashed
8. Heartless
9. Blindfolded
10 Wildfires
Line-up:
Tom S. Englund – vocals, guitar
Henrik Danhage – guitar
Rikard Zander – keyboards
Jonas Ekdahl – drums
Johan Niemann – bass
