Evergrace - Evergrace

Published Oct. 24 2006

*=Staff's pick	The Escape* Life Has Just Begun* Enough Is Enough Alive Plastic Ideals I Am You Ulterior World World Of Nothingness I Am Sorry For You Part I* I Am Sorry For You Part II (Hold On)

Genre	Heavy Metal	Johan Falk	Vocals
Tracks	10	Jon Bålefalk	Guitar
Runningtime	42 Min.	David Ohlsson	Guitar
Label	Ulterium Records	Martin Davidsson	Bass
Release	30 Sept. 2006	Josef Davidsson	Drums
Country	Sweden	Jonathan Stenberg	Keyboards
Similar artists	Tad Morose, Morgana Lefay

Evergrace is a young band from the Swedish town of Edsbyn, located in an area that keep on producing fine metal acts in an ever flowing stream and I really wonder what it is in the water up there. The band was formed early 2001 by six individuals on a singular mission - to create quality heavy metal. After a couple of years rehearsing and playing live singer Johan Falk went to study in the musical program at ITM in Huskvarna, Sweden. Early this year the band felt that the time was ready for them to record their first full-length album and during the song writing process they landed a record deal with the new label Ulterium Records. After a summer of recording and mixing the debut album of Evergrace now is up for inspection at last.

You could go on describing the music in many ways but I start with taking the easy way out and that is these two words; Tad Morose! The similarities between Evergrace and Tad Morose are quite a few; the guitar work, the song structures, the vocal melodies etc. On the other hand, they certainly could have picked a role model that was much worse.

The Escape starts the album in mid tempo with pounding drums, heavy rhythm guitars and a mesmerizing guitar melody on top of that. From the very beginning Johan Falk also proves to be a very talented vocalist. Life Has Just Begun follows the same pattern as the opener but is in possession of better vocal melodies and this one leans more towards the sound of Morgana Lefay. Enough Is Enough speeds the tempo up a bit and the guitar work is familiar once again. The chorus however doesn't reach all the way on this one. This is one of the biggest problems with this album, the songs often start very promising but falls flat with the arrival of the chorus. The other thing that I must point out as a downside is that the song structures tend to sound the same during the entire record. The feeling I get when listening is that after the first two promising tracks the quality level drops drastically and I'm having hard times to keep my focus along the way. Track number nine I Am Sorry For You Part I however is a wake up call. An energetic riff sets the standard at once and the addictive vocal melodies from Johan Falk are back.

Despite my criticism I definitely consider the debut album from Evergrace as promising. It is no question about that you can sense the potential and these are only the early stages of the band. Their song writing needs a bit more variety and stronger choruses but I'm sure they will evolve into something really exciting in the future. A diamond in the rough!