A Night to Remember

Rounding their 10th year as a band, Evergrey puts out their first live album. The "Dark" brothers of Progressive Metal recently put out the (not so well received) Inner Circle album, which I found to be rather well composed... though not as good as Recreation Day, the album for which they're best known. They've had a lot of time to evolve and change their style over these last 10 years, and have done so well. But enough history; time for the review.

As I said before, this is their first Live album, and trust me when I say that it is quite an impressive one.

Firstly, the sound quality is about as good as it gets when you're talking about a live album. There’s the right balance in there of all the instruments, as well as the vocals and the crowd. One thing in particular that I noticed is that the crowd really gets into the songs sometimes, you can really hear them and feel the energy between the crowd and the band. There’s nary a moment when anything seems drowned out. Rarely does a Live album come out that ‘s as well polished as this one but at the same time doesn’t lose the Live feel.

As for the band, they played very well. The whole band was on that night, playing everything damn well. None of the material perplexes the band and gives them any trouble. The whole band plays perfectly in unison, no flaws whatsoever. The instrumental portion doesn’t deserve all the credit though. There are some beautifully sung vocals to back them up. The band’s frontman, Tom Englund, hits every note perfectly. He makes no mistakes as to delivery or lyrics, and all in all manages to pull off a great, soulful performance.

The setlist is not bad, but could be better. That’s where it loses the 5%. I think they could have thought it through a bit better and put some different songs on there, but really, with a band as good as Evergrey, it’s hard to put a BAD setlist together. Most of the songs on here are well chosen, and they flow pretty nicely into eachother. While the quality of the setlist leaves a bit to be desired, the quantity they present (it spans 2 disks!) on this Live album is astonishing, if not overwhelming! Listening to this album entirely is a lot of fun, and a great way to pass the time, clocking in at just near 2 hours.


Evergrey, as a band, has lived for quite some time and put out a lot of quality material, and this album is another peg to add to their discography. This album made me want to see them live, so if they ever come up to Canada, I’ll be first in line for tickets.