In Search of Truth

After two good but somewhat uneven albums, Evergrey strike gold with their third record, In Search of Truth. Released in 2001 on Inside Out, this is one of those rare albums where everything just falls in the right place, the songwriting, the performances, even the X-Files-inspired story of alien abduction. Nearly every single song on this album is a little masterpiece of dark prog/power metal, making In Search of Truth the still unequalled magnum opus of Evergrey’s discography and indeed one of the best albums of the whole genre.

One of the reasons why this albums works so well still today, twenty years after its release, is that it masterfully combines technical progressive songwriting with great atmosphere and emotional impact. Prog metal is a genre where it is rare to find albums that can connect with the listener at both a technical and emotional level. When this happens, the outcome is usually a masterpiece that stands the test of time to become one of the classics of the genre, like in the case of In Search of Truth. The songwriting on this album is rich and inventive, much more prog-oriented than Evergrey’s previous two records, while at the same time retaining the band’s trademark gothic and classic heavy metal influences. Each song brims with great instrumentation, from technical but melodic guitar riffs and leads, to sophisticated keyboard arrangements, to clever drum fills – this album has it all. The mini-revolution in the lineup (three-fifths of the band are new on this album) was certainly beneficial for Evergrey. The contribution of new keyboardist Sven Karlsson (who will soon join Soilwork) is particularly remarkable, especially if compared with the tentative performances of the band’s previous keyboard players. New guitarist Henrik Danhage also proves more effective than Evergrey’s former guitar player Dan Bronell (and in fact his residency with the band still continues today). Overall, the band’s technical level has noticeably increased relative to the two previous albums, and this is partly what makes In Search of Truth a far more interesting and compelling release.

The higher level of technical proficiency allowed Evergrey to write songs that are more complex than before. Most of the tracks exceed the 5-minute mark and feature frequent instrumental intermezzos steering the music in multiple different directions. Yet, this complexity does not come at all at the expense of cohesiveness or accessibility. There is a strong sense of purpose and direction in each song that makes them very easy to follow and engage with. This is another sign of a great piece of music. Writing complex songs is (relatively) easy. Writing complex songs that are still catchy and easy to assimilate, and that involve the listener on both an emotional and intellectual level, requires much more skill. One of the reasons why Evergrey succeed in this is the extraordinary performance of their leader, Tom S. Englund. Englund is the glue that holds the music of this album together. He is a gifted singer, with a distinctive timbre and phrasing that make him instantly recognizable. His voice is dark and gritty, yet melodious at the same time. He possesses the rare talent of being able to credibly convey raw emotions through his voice, especially dark feelings of melancholia and desperation. This suits perfectly the spooky theme of the album, an eerie story of alien abduction and experimentation. Englund plays perfectly the part of the distressed abductee frantically trying to piece together the fragments of his memory to figure out what is happening to him. It is frankly hard to remain emotionally unaffected by his howls on “State of Paralysis” or by the desperate chorus of “Different Worlds”.

The album is nearly faultless. The quality of the songwriting is high throughout its nine songs, which is a rare achievement for Evergrey (most of their albums contain at least a few fillers). Yet, a few tracks stand out as absolute masterpieces. “Rulers of the Mind” is a progressive tour-de-force that twists and turns through a myriad of parts before opening up in an amazing chorus. The interconnected pair of songs in the middle of the album, “State of Paralysis” / “The Encounter”, is where the album achieves its incredible emotional peak. The former track is a short piano-driven prelude, drenched with Englund’s emotional singing. “The Encounter” is instead a progressive beast that is sustained by some of the most muscular riffs that you’ll find on the album. The two songs share a beautifully desperate chorus (“They’re coming… They’re coming here to stay…”) that never fails to get me, every single time. “Mark of the Triangle” is another great track, featuring strong dynamics and another masterful performance by Englund. “Different Worlds” is perhaps the best track of the album, dark and gothic and with a chorus that is nearly impossible to get out of one’s mind.

If I were to find a fault with the record is that it closes somewhat weakly, with the unspectacular “Misled” – probably the least remarkable song here. It is a pity, as this is not the way to close such a fantastic album. The production is also perhaps slightly weaker than one would have hoped for. Do not get me wrong, it is a massive improvement over the very shaky productions of Evergrey’ previous two albums. However, I cannot help but feel that producer Andy LaRocque (King Diamond) has not yet been able to figure out what this band need to sound great. On previous albums he had overemphasized the bass tones, resulting in a sound that was too boomy and murky. Here LaRocque almost errs on the opposite side. The album sounds somewhat too clean and airy, while I wish for more power and grit. I do not know if it’s a coincidence, but this will be the last Evergrey album with LaRocque in charge of production and mixing, which is probably for the best.

But these are minor grievances: In Search of Truth is a progressive metal masterpiece. It has everything one can wish for in such a genre: complex songwriting, sophisticated arrangements, strong dynamics, catchy (yet not cheesy) melodic lines, powerful and emotional performances, and a captivating concept. It is hard to find albums that are superior to this one, both in Evergrey’s discography and in the scene as a whole. Honestly, if you are a progressive metal fan, you simply have to give this album a spin (or twenty)!

To most who are familiar with the genre, power/progressive metal usually conjures up images of pretentious lead guitar and synthesizer breaks, a general contempt for established musical forms and conventional arrangements, walking hand in hand with a barrage of cliché hooks meant to tame the wild progressive side of the coin. In this respect, Evergrey’s “In Search of Truth” is something of an enigma in that it shies away from much of the extremes of both sides, focusing in on memorable songwriting, augmented with the occasional progressive element to keep the listener interested and even guessing at times.

Evergrey’s early days as a band coincides with that of many other established power metal acts that dabble in the progressive realm such as Labyrinth and Pagan’s Mind, and comparisons to both acts can be made musically in some respects. They started out pretty strong in the songwriting department and were quite riff happy considering the tendencies of the genre to meander, mostly due to the influence of later Fates Warning and Dream Theater albums. Tom Englund’s voice is ballsy and aggressive, avoiding the general cliché of emulating Ray Adler or Geoff Tate, and leaning somewhat close to a Peter Wagner style. But one area where they really came up short was in the lead/soloing department, which is remedied on this album, marking the beginning of the Henrik Danhage era of lyrically conceived and lead-fill happy brilliance. All you need to do is listen to the first set of licks during the intro of “The Masterplan” and contrast it with the bulk of Evergrey’s first 2 albums and you’ll notice a huge jump in ambition in this department.

“In Search of Truth” takes its cues heavily from Fates Warning’s subtle approach to the concept album format. Often you’ll find yourself wondering when the track number on your player changed from one to the next as the songs flow together so smoothly it seems the book doesn’t bother with chapter headings. Certain songs carry common thematic material, lyrical references (the quotes “My Keepers”, “My body has become my prison”, “My value as a human is gone” and similar conspiratorial catch phrases are repeated often in several songs) and abrupt changes in atmosphere. The keyboards are extremely active, yet function less as a soloing instrument like in the case of Labyrinth and more as a detailing effect to change the mood of a section.

If there is anything wrong with this album it’s the ordering of the tracks. It has been noted by some that “The Masterplan” is the best song on here, and I would personally venture to say it is the best song Evergrey has ever written. In keeping with that, starting an album off with such a brilliant display of crushing heaviness and catchy melodic majesty, all wrapped up in a schizophrenically triumphant and gloomy package, is going to steal the thunder of everything else on here. Even hook drenched keepers like “Mark of the Triangle” and fast paced progressive hits like “Watching the Skies” have a hard time standing up to it. Equally ironic is that the second best song on here, “Misled”, is the album’s closer, almost giving the listener the feeling that the middle of this album is filler. If you can listen to the ingenious way this song builds from an almost doom metal feel to a blaze of speed metal brilliance and not be amazed, nothing this band puts out will likely satisfy you.

As far as power/progressive outfits go, this is perfectly tailored to those who want a larger helping of the first half of the hybrid. It rocks hard enough and avoids getting too structurally intricate to lose the rank and file metal fan, most of who probably don’t adore Dream Theater as much as the progressive scene does. There is a slight epic tinge to the sound, very similar to Labyrinth’s “Return to Heaven Denied” and Vision Divine’s “Send me an Angel”, but not quite as light or speed happy. As a whole this album is slightly inferior to a couple of the later offerings, but the first and last songs on here are the crowning achievements of this act and alone make this a worthy purchase.

Evergrey’s “In Search of Truth” album was one of the first metal albums I bought, it was an album I had incredibly high hopes for having heard such wonderful stuff about but I can remember being remarkably unimpressed with this purchase that just took £16 out of my wallet. It’s not that it’s a bad CD by a band with no talent, it’s by a band who clearly have plenty of talent and could easily have created an outstanding album, but for some reason held back.

The album does have a couple of standout tracks, but for the most part it all sounds like filler, songs that could have been great but just aren’t, songs with great ideas that haven’t really been developed and therefore barely amount to anything. The Masterplan, which is the opening track, is an outstanding song. It’s packed with heavy riffs combined with incredibly fast drumming that leads onto memorable choruses and solos. This song is proof that this band can use their talent to create a masterpiece of a song, so why didn’t they do this with the rest of the album?

State of Paralysis/The Encounter (Basically the same song split into two different tracks) is another example of the band creating a genius of a song, starting out with a simple piano/vocal intro with a very somber atmosphere that fits the song incredibly well before going into a more heavy and faster (this is where the song splits into two tracks) part of the song, again, as with the Masterplan, full of memorable riffs, choruses and solos.

The rest of the album though fails to deliver anything special, there are some catchy lines, some nice sounding guitar riffs and the odd weakish hook, but really not enough to save the album from failing. One thing that does stand out throughout the entire album however is the drums, courtesy of Patrick Carlsson. He treats us to some nice and complex drum patterns with a sharp and very distinct sound to them.

On the vocal front, while Tom Englund certainly can sing, he really does sound like someone straight from the 80s, maybe even 70s, and a lot of the time he sounds incredibly whiney, moaning about aliens and getting probed (which is what the album is about).

So on the whole, this album is not completely worthless, it does have its moments; a couple of really good songs, but really, its nothing amazing. If you see it in a bargain bin, by all means pick it up but don’t pay £16 for it…like I did.

After changing the line-up in three positions the keyboard nowadays plays a more important role in the Evergrey-sound (be it as "typical" keyboard or piano), but always used for the very best of the song, adding another dimension to the compositions of the Swedes, which you only now realise had been missing before!

The whole album is based upon an equally weird and interesting and dark concept, which deals with a man, who realises that something is wrong with him. He fears light and darkness alike and under hypnosis comes to know that he had been abducted by aliens, apparently more than once. In the course of the album he tries to find out and understand what exactly had happened...

What becomes evident on "In Search Of Truth" from the first moment on is that Evergrey only sound like one thing: Evergrey. Tom Englund's characteristic and expressive voice alone would already be enough to lift this band up from the myriads of other bands, but the music itself has grown even more original and unique than already on"Solitude*Dominance*Tragedy". It impresses with its multi-dimensionality and depth, with stunning variability. This begins right away with the opening "The Masterplan", which is introduced with a spoken sample, which also kicks off the dark concept...

This song convinces by its dark atmosphere and its brilliant arrangement, atmospheric, melodic passages go hand in hand with heavy guitars, driven by mid-paced double-bass, despite its complexity always accessible, a small masterpiece right at the start. The following "Rulers Of The Mind" continues this musical roller-coaster-ride in masterly fashion, soft, keyboard-oriented parts seamlessly merge into heavier passages, above everything hovers the variable voice of Tom Englund, which leaves its very distinct mark on the sound!

And if that was not enough already, we get the next hammer with "Watching The Skies", impressive, powerful, with a brilliant contrast between the heavy guitars and the relatively soft keyboards, everything so very harmonic and dynamic, sheer brilliance! "State Of Paralysis" then only has a playing time of 2:14 minutes, but it is so incredibly intensive that it seems that the power of a considerably longer song had been compressed into this one, exclusively comprising of piano and urgent vocals. Seamlessly it turns into "The Encounter", which just like "Mark Of The Triangle" is a good bit more powerful and heavier, but never neglecting the atmosphere and intricate arrangements, quite the contrary, softer, more emotional parts always are entwined to keep up the tension within the songs.

And then, yes, then we have THE absolute highlight, despite a "Nosferatu", a "Words Mean Nothing", a "The Masterplan" and a "Watching The Skies" in my opinion the creative pinnacle of Evergrey's career so far: "Dark Waters". Intensive, with equally heavy guitars and emotional passages, emotive vocals, driving rhythms and a symphonic element including a complete choir, everything seamlessly woven together, creating an impressive piece of masterly art full of dramatic, dynamic and intensive moods that only very few other songs in the whole genre even come close to!

Introduced by keyboard, piano and emphatic vocals, then supported by some acoustic guitars, "Different Worlds" leads us into just these, soft, atmospheric, but just as intensive, and the end is brought up by "Misled", almost straight-forward, but still not simple, again showing to us the whole emotional spectrum of the Evergrey-sound.

And don't let your first encounter fool you, this album gets better and better with each rotation, because only with time you will be able to fully understand the true grandeur and class of this CD!

Awesome stuff here. Dark progressive power metalish stuff, with atmospheric keyboards and crunchy riffing peppered with shredding (and I do mean shredding) solos, backed by solid drumming. They're obviously very tight, as there's no lack of technicality here, but only enough to enhance the songs, no wankery here. On top of it all we have Tom Englund's unique voice, slightly hoarse but still very melodic so that it ends up conveying a lot of emotion, especially coupled with his darkly introspective lyrics which somehow, despite being pretty dramatic in places, never seem to come off as cheesy, which is quite a relief. These guys have a very original sound to them, and deserve all the praise they get. Only real drawback from this otherwise consistently impressive album is the production, because while Sven Karlsson wrote some cool stuff (their keyboardist), he's all over this album, and the guitarist's fantastic fretwork isn't as at the front as it could be. Karlsson obviously has a tendency to do this in his bands, as he left after this album to join Soilwork, and had the same effect on his new band. This is all fixed up though on Evergrey's newest one, Recreation Day. Check that one out too, it's everything this album is and more.