Evergrey

Evergrey
Evergrey performing live at Nosturi, Helsinki, Finland on March 20, 2008
Background information
Origin	Gothenburg, Sweden
Genres	Progressive metal
Years active	1995–present
Labels	AFM Records
Website	evergrey.net
Members	Tom S. Englund Rikard Zander Marcus Jidell Johan Niemann
Past members	Will Chandra Daniel Nöjd Dan Bronell Patrick Carlsson Sven Karlsson Christian Rehn Michael Håkansson Fredrik Larsson Henrik Danhage Jonas Ekdahl Jari Kainulainen Hannes Van Dahl

Evergrey is a progressive metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden. The band was founded in 1995 and released its debut album, The Dark Discovery, in 1998. Their most recent album, Glorious Collision, was released in 2011.

Lyrical themes

Evergrey's lyrics have always been of the darker sort, and the same can be said of the band's imagery. While The Dark Discovery dealt with a variety of ideas, many later albums have been concept albums, dealing with issues like self-reformation (Recreation Day), paranoia, alien abduction (In Search of Truth), child abuse, cults, and religion (The Inner Circle).

Recreation Day is an album that covers many issues, ranging from death and mourning to general fear and sorrow, all of which contribute to a greater concept of re-creation of oneself. These ideas are explored from many different points of view, such as someone contemplating suicide ("As I Lie Bleeding"), mourners after a funeral ("I'm Sorry," a cover of Dilba Demirbag's hit), and dying people's looking back on their "unforgivable" sins ("Unforgivable"). "Unforgivable" also acted as a catalyst for the next album, (The Inner Circle), which dealt with the same two issues described in the song: religion and child abuse.

Recent events

On April 4, 2006, Evergrey released their sixth studio album, Monday Morning Apocalypse. The album was produced and mixed by Sanken Sandquist and Stefan Glauman, former producers of Rammstein, Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, among others.^{[citation needed]} Tom S. Englund said, regarding the collaboration: "We feel honoured to work with such amazing producers. We are sure that they will succeed in making us sound better than ever before."^{[citation needed]} The album debuted at No. 6 in Sweden.^[1]

During summer 2006, Evergrey played at many festivals throughout Europe: among others, Sweden Rock Festival, Download Festival, Arvika Festival, Masters of Rock, Storsjöyran and Sziget Festival. From May 5 to May 30, the band toured the United States with In Flames, Nevermore and Throwdown. On September 15 they headlined Prog Power VII in Atlanta, Georgia.^[2]

On October 24, 2006, Evergrey started a new European tour. They were supported by fellow Swedish death metal band Avatar,^[3] and they visited Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden.^[4]

Evergrey released their seventh studio album, Torn, in September 2008, continuing with their trademark lyrical themes of desperation and despair. Jari Kainulainen permanently filled the role on August 6, 2007, who also played bass on Torn.^[5]

On May 8, 2008, Evergrey announced that they had signed a deal with Steamhammer/SPV. This included the release of their new album and the entire back catalogue. It also was announced that the new album, Torn, would be released early in September 2008.^[6] As the deal includes the band's entire back catalog, there is the possibility of re-releases of previous Evergrey albums with the inclusion of added bonus material.

In July 2008, Swedish/Danish band Amaranthe announced that keyboardist Rikard Zander, along with In Flames bassist Peter Iwers, would make a guest appearance on their upcoming album.

In May 2010, it was announced that Jonas Ekdahl, Henrik Danhage and Jari Kainulainen have all left Evergrey by mutual decision because of problems with the band members interacting with each other. They called it quits as to not ruin the friendship they all have with each other.^[7]

An article posted November 13, 2010 on Evergrey's blog contained dates for upcoming concerts as well as the confirmation of a new album titled Glorious Collision on February 28, 2011.^[8]

Via Facebook posts in November 2013, while writing the next Evergrey album due for release in 2014, the band first confirmed that drummer Hannes Van Dahl would be leaving the band to join Sabaton full time, and then due to "problems working together" guitarist Marcus Jidell would also be leaving.

Lineup

• Tom S. Englund - (1995–present) vocals, guitar
• Rikard Zander - (2002–present) keyboard, backing vocals
• Johan Niemann - (2010–present) bass, backing vocals

Guest musicians

• Carina Kjellberg-Englund - female vocals (1996–Present)
• The Gothenburg Symphonic Orchestra - string quartet (2004–2005)
• Mercury Choir (of the Swedish Catholic Church) - choir (2003)

Former members

• Will Chandra (1996–1998) - keyboard
• Daniel Nöjd (1996–1999) - bass, vocals
• Dan Bronell (1996–2000) - guitar
• Patrick Carlsson (1996–2003) - drums
• Sven Karlsson (1999–2001) - keyboard
• Christian Rehn (2001–2002) - keyboard
• Michael Håkansson (1999–2006) - bass
• Fredrik Larsson - (2007) bass
• Jonas Ekdahl - (2003–2010) drums
• Jari Kainulainen - (2007–2010) bass
• Henrik Danhage - (2000–2010) guitar, backing vocals
• Hannes Van Dahl - (2010–2013) drums
• Marcus Jidell - (2010–2013) guitar, backing vocals

Discography

• The Dark Discovery (1998)
• Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy (1999)
• In Search of Truth (2001)
• Recreation Day (2003)
• The Inner Circle (2004)
• A Night to Remember (Gothenburg Concert CD&DVD) (2005)
• Monday Morning Apocalypse (2006)
• Torn (2008)
• Glorious Collision (2011)
• A Decade And A Half (2011) (best of)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Evergrey.

• Official website
• Interview With Tom Englund