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: : Monday Morning Apocalypse : :
Monday Morning Apocalypse is the 6th album from Swedish band Evergrey,
who apparently has made quite a name for themselves during the 8 years
they have released records. As Sweden in recent years has produced
quite a lot of good prog bands, that isn't a surprise.
Personally I am unfamiliar with this band, their history and their
earlier releases - but still: This release is a disappointment.
To paraphrase DJ Iggy from his friday radio show at ProgRock.com a few weeks
ago: There isn't anything fundamentally bad about this release. Really,
there isn't. It just lacks certain elements.
To summarize the good points I could find: Very well produced and
polished sound, tight and good rhythm section, good and subtle use of
keyboards in most of the songs. And I find it extremely pleasing and
enjoyable when I listen to a prog metal band that hasn't consciously or
unconciously tried to copy the best elements of Dream Theater in their
Images and Words/Awake period. Most of the songs got tempo changes and
breaks enough to keep the music well inside the prog category too, and
that the chorus parts and several of the songs as a whole have a high
sing-a-long factor to them isn't necessarily bad either.
The flip side of the coin is as follows: The vocalist rarely changes his
singing mode. It's aggressive or melodramatic most of the time - most
often the latter. 45 minutes of more or less non-stop aggressive and
melodramatic singing is bothersome and tiring; at least for me. All the
songs; except track 8, are guitar driven, and the band has opted to go
for a late 80's/early 90's metal sound to be the driving force of all
the tracks. Too little variation in that respect, and a few cliches
comes along in some of the tracks due to that.
But the major problem with this record is that it is boring. You hear
the intro, and then -there- comes the guitar driven first verse, -there-
the chorus, -there- the break. You expect and predict the development of
the songs throughout - and a predictable song structure is not an asset
when the songs in themselves aren't particularly interesting in
themselves. When you start drumming your fingers on the table waiting
for the song to end, and you realize that it is a three and a half
minute song you get bored by, well...
I get the feeling that
this album has been planned from a to z to hit home with a younger, more
generic metal interested audience in mind. And I have to admit - if I
had been 14 today, I would probably have loved this album to death.
Aggression and melodrama is much more a part of life in your teens, and
quite a few teenagers will want to have this album I presume. Certainly
teenage boys.
A good example of where this album fails, is track 7 - At Loss For
Words. The song starts out with a very nice intro, starts building up to
an interesting structure for the group to explore for the next few
minutes - and then all the initial excitement for the track gets drowned
by a generic heavy metal rush. With a break at just the expected place
in the track.
There are a couple of highlights to this album though. The opening track
is the best track of the album - the one track where Evergrey have
managed to produce a song with an interesting structure; where the heavy
metal aggression elements actually work to their advantage. No
surprises, but a well done and an above average heavy metal track.
Track 9 - Still In The Water; is also worth listening to. Although the
track suffers from way to much melodrama, the song structure is a bit
unexpected at times, and the group manages to insert subtle elements in
the song that creates an excitement lacking from the rest of the album;
including some extremely melodramatic backing vocals which in this track
works - but would have sounded out of place and moronic in as good as
every other song I've ever heard.
Rating: 5 (out of 10)
Reviewer: Olav Björnsen
: : Visit the Artist’s Website : :
: : Discography : :
Monday Morning Apocalypse (2006)
A Night to Remember (2005)
The Inner Circle (2004)
Solitude • Dominance • Tragedy Special Edition (2004)
The Dark Discovery Special Edition (2004)
Recreation Day (2003)
In Search of Truth (2001)
Solitude • Dominance • Tragedy (1999)
The Dark Discovery (1998) |
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