Customer Reviews

Solitude Dominance Tragedy (Spec)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Well I've got the hat trick in Evergrey reviews, so I may as well do their fourth album and get the cycle. For those of you who are confused by my terms, I'll explain, the hat trick is a sports term, primarily used in hockey as a term signifying the event of one player scoring three goals. The term has since evolved to be used in other triplicate events and I have written three Evergrey reviews. Get it!

Ok, Evergrey has one more brilliant album left, their 1999 sophomore release, Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy, and of course the cycle is a baseball term for getting all available hits in a game, ie a single, double, triple and a homer, so hopefully this review is a hit.

Tom Englund and company followed up their exceptional debut album, The Dark Discovery with their equally exceptional sophomore effort Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy and with this recording the the groundwork was set for the absolutely stunning In Search of Truth.

Replicating the sound and style on The Dark Discovery, Evergrey relies upon their dark, gloomy, powerful, melodic, feeling of urgency and adds an even more demanding sense of urgency to the music. Inclusion of keyboards, strings, female backing choirs, cellos, harp, modify their heavy metal sound and give their music a full lush sound that continues to pummel the listener with crunching, power chords and the high octane singing of Tom Englund.

The album opens with "Solitude Within" a blazing guitar crunching number and while the guitar are chugging, first a piano joins in and then Englund with his emotive style and always the darkness is present. Evergrey does a variable tempo on the next song "Nosferatu" which starts out slowly quickly building up tempo while violins and lady singers back Englund. "The Shocking Truth" starts out with the following monologue with continuing monologues throughout:

["we have evidence of a superior culture out there] [they come from ...god knows where] [maybe from outer space] [maybe from some other dimension of existence..."]

The music is a medium slow pace atmospheric dark piece where Englund is in obvious agony over his real or perceived plight and it's this darkness touched by beauty that gives this song so much emotion.
"All the battles that I've fought and lost
When I'm asleep they come
All the screams that I've screamed unheard
A week wounded soul"

The fourth number is musically similar to the first track, "A Scattered Me" is a song with religious overtones
"God you were my Judas
Your deception killed my belief
God you were my Judas
Your deception..."

"She Speaks to the Dead" is maybe the most powerful of the songs with a variable tempo, whining guitars and is again about religion or the occult;
"Father
She speaks to the dead
And I'll crave her confession
Cause she speaks to the dead"

"When Darkness Falls" starts out very slow, dark and ominous working up to a fast almost speed metal pace and varying back with choir in the background. "Words Mean Nothing" is a ballad and "Damnation" and "The Corey Curse" picks up the speed again with similar dark haunting medium paced melodies.

CONCLUSION

Having reviewed all four of their current albums I have no doubt that Evergrey is going to be a force in the progressive metal music field for many years and though their sound is currently unique, it won't be long before other bands pick up on their success and try to emulate these Swedish prodigies.

Few bands carry so much emotion through not only a vocalists' performance and words, but the music itself. Music played from the heart is not merely passionate; it IS a passion. Many bands have false or exaggerated words most commonly being their pathetic pleas to fit in, get along, or just observing a problem in its totality - though based on emotion, there are few bands like this which truly can EXPRESS their emotion, and not necessarily through words alone. Evergrey is one such band, and this, the Swedish band's 1999 sophomore effort, is a perfect example of this talent.

Tom S. Englund is the heart and soul of Evergrey. A towering man (he's well-over six feet tall), his voice is not exactly a deep boom of dark power (like Iced Earth's former singer Matthew Barlow), and not exactly an incorporeal, haunting croon (like Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt,) but rather somewhere between, with his own highly unique tone. He's got a slight rasp to his voice which adds a feeling of tattered and melancholic agony. Undoubtedly Englund's best performance on this album (and one of his best in his entire career) is on "Solitude Within," the opening track to SOLITUDE * DOMINANCE * TRAGEDY. Just the first few lines of the verse show this: "Cold is...the air I breathe/ Sleepless...but I don't mind the rain." However, the emotion hardly stops with his voice.

Doubling as a guitarist (playing a majority of leads on all of Evergrey's albums, to be specific), Englund's emotional touch is felt twofold. Just listen to the soaring riffs during the choruses of "Nosferatu" and "She Speaks to the Dead." There is emotion not only IN these songs, but wholly OF these songs.

Alas, it is hard not to further explore "Nosferatu," it is lyrically about (what else) the title entity, but not so much as an "I've come to suck your blood" kind of cheesy attempt at being creepy. Instead, Englund's lyrics focus upon Nosferatu being a dark, sinister force which takes many forms, including "...the cries of the abandoned child/ The pain of the battered beast..." and appearing "as mist and (it comes) as fog." With this lyrical focus on an ominous atmosphere, the riffs evoke images. For me, these images are of long, dark forests vaguely illuminated by the moon as it creeps behind the clouds to gaze upon the poor victims who are unaware of their watchers.

On a separate note, the band at the time is quite different than it would be in time. Only a four-piece (there had been a keyboardist on their debut album, THE DARK DISCOVERY, but he left shortly after), the other members included the following members. Dan Bronell on guitars (this would be his last performance with Evergrey, as he left during the writing process of their fantastic third album, IN SEARCH OF TRUTH). While good, Bronell's leads sometimes feel a little out-of-place, although he was excellent on harmonies (like during the intro to "Solitude Within") and has a few killer leads. Daniel Nojd on bass (also on his last album, before the great Michael Håkansson would join) is a very good bassist. He doesn't always mimic the heavier guitar riffs like far too many a bassist will do, and includes a few little leads which are simply awesome. And then there's Patrick Carlsson, who would end up being (along with Tom S. Englund) the only other steady member of Evergrey until 2003, when he left for personal reasons. Nonetheless, this album is one of his best performances, as he lays out thick, complex, heavy rhythms and beats that are not merely showcases for his talent, but bettering and complementing each song.

Now what is there to say about this album? Just listen to it and be carried away. Feel the pain and anguish of "Solitude Within." Be very scared of what's REALLY going on after listening to "The Shocking Truth." Feel the fear and wonder and overall tragedy of the trilogy "A Scattered Me," "She Speaks to the Dead," and "When Darkness Falls." There is nothing filler or weak on this album. This is as every much a great album as IN SEARCH OF TRUTH or RECREATION DAY, or the newest, THE INNER CIRCLE. Evergrey, with SOLITUDE * DOMINANCE * TRAGEDY, prove that emotion can be far more than just a word clichéd by music. Emotion can BE music.

One of the darkest albums I have ever heard. I just listened to the album three days ago, over 2 years after it's initial release and it is now one of my favorite albums ever released. When I first heard their new album, In Search of Truth, I have been addicted to this Sweedish outfit. By far, the best song on the album is "Solitude Within", followed by the greats "Nosferatu" and "The Shocking Truth". This album is just a floating mantra of dark scarred truths. I must say that I am very pleased with this and am really starting to apriciate metal for all that it is. Forget that, just buy this album, you WON'T be disapointed...

-MC

this is comming from someone who's music is not generaly liked at work. i'm a diehard metal fan who works around country & Rap people. when i recieved this in the mail i imediatly put it in and had people amazed going "who is this...i like'em".
the way he sings is incredible, he sings in a harmonized and powerful voice. solitude + dominance + tragedy is a great album, i give it a "must buy" to any Savatage fan.

Okay, this was the last album I purchased after listening to all 4 albums of Evergrey. I have to say this record has something to it, it has a completely different atmosphere. So many songs on this record are so powerful in meaning and in music, listening to them atleast 20 times is not enough at all. Having the preachers voices in the background in a couple of songs defenitely touches souls in some way or other.

5 Thumps Up!!!

My first time listening to Evergrey came when they were supporting at an Iced Earth show that I went to in Seattle. They were pretty good live, so I decided to buy their "Solitude Dominance Tragedy" album for the heck of it. I was pleasently surprised when I put the cd in my cd player, this band is exellent! Tom Englund is a powerful song writer and he clearly displays his talents on this band's second release. While this album is dark and heavy, Tom's vocals add a lot of emotion into the mix. I like every song on this album, but my favorites are: "Solitude Within", "Nosferatu" "The Shocking Truth", and "When Darkness Falls". Highly recommended for fans of "Blind Guardian", "Sonata Artica", "Symphony X", etc...

I've listened to heavy metal/hardrock music for close to 20 years now and this is the one record in 10 years that have made me go WOW! At first i didn't think this record was much to have but it grew on me and now i just love it. This record is one that can and will stand the test of time. I'm sure that this record will remembered as a hardrock classic if Evergrey makes it outside Sweden. Tom's voice cries with agony and you can't help to get swept away along with it.

Well I've got the hat trick in Evergrey reviews, so I may as well do their fourth album and get the cycle. For those of you who are confused by my terms, I'll explain, the hat trick is a sports term, primarily used in hockey as a term signifying the event of one player scoring three goals. The term has since evolved to be used in other triplicate events and I have written three Evergrey reviews. Get it!

Ok, Evergrey has one more brilliant album left, their 1999 sophomore release, Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy, and of course the cycle is a baseball term for getting all available hits in a game, ie a single, double, triple and a homer, so hopefully this review is a hit.

Tom Englund and company followed up their exceptional debut album, The Dark Discovery with their equally exceptional sophomore effort Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy and with this recording the the groundwork was set for the absolutely stunning In Search of Truth.

Replicating the sound and style on The Dark Discovery, Evergrey relies upon their dark, gloomy, powerful, melodic, feeling of urgency and adds an even more demanding sense of urgency to the music. Inclusion of keyboards, strings, female backing choirs, cellos, harp, modify their heavy metal sound and give their music a full lush sound that continues to pummel the listener with crunching, power chords and the high octane singing of Tom Englund.

The album opens with "Solitude Within" a blazing guitar crunching number and while the guitar are chugging, first a piano joins in and then Englund with his emotive style and always the darkness is present. Evergrey does a variable tempo on the next song "Nosferatu" which starts out slowly quickly building up tempo while violins and lady singers back Englund. "The Shocking Truth" starts out with the following monologue with continuing monologues throughout:

["we have evidence of a superior culture out there] [they come from ...god knows where] [maybe from outer space] [maybe from some other dimension of existence..."]

The music is a medium slow pace atmospheric dark piece where Englund is in obvious agony over his real or perceived plight and it's this darkness touched by beauty that gives this song so much emotion.
"All the battles that I've fought and lost
When I'm asleep they come
All the screams that I've screamed unheard
A week wounded soul"

The fourth number is musically similar to the first track, "A Scattered Me" is a song with religious overtones
"God you were my Judas
Your deception killed my belief
God you were my Judas
Your deception..."

"She Speaks to the Dead" is maybe the most powerful of the songs with a variable tempo, whining guitars and is again about religion or the occult;
"Father
She speaks to the dead
And I'll crave her confession
Cause she speaks to the dead"

"When Darkness Falls" starts out very slow, dark and ominous working up to a fast almost speed metal pace and varying back with choir in the background. "Words Mean Nothing" is a ballad and "Damnation" and "The Corey Curse" picks up the speed again with similar dark haunting medium paced melodies.

Song / Track List

01. Solitude Within 4 1/2 stars
02. Nosferatu 4 1/2 stars
03. The Shocking Truth 5 stars
04. A Scattered Me 5 stars
05. She Speaks To The Dead 5 stars
06. When Darkness Falls 5 stars
07. Words Mean Nothing 4 stars
08. Damnation 4 stars
09. The Corey Curse 4 stars

THE BAND:

Tom Englund - Vocals / guitar
Dan Bronell - Guitars
Daniel Nojd - Bass / backing vocals ( now out of the band )
Patrick Carlsson - Drums

CONCLUSION

Having reviewed all four of their current albums I have no doubt that Evergrey is going to be a force in the progressive metal music field for many years and though their sound is currently unique, it won't be long before other bands pick up on their success and try to emulate these Swedish prodigies.

Remotely Similar Bands

Megadeth, Mob Rules, Tad Morose, Superior, DGM, Threshold, Iron Maiden, GB Arts

This album was the last I owned of the first 4 albums. I find myself listening to Solitude the most. This album is darker and more depressing than Recreation Day and Truth. Critics are always bashing Tom Englund and I can't figure it out. Tom makes Evergrey. Great singer. Solitude is a great progressive metal gem. Listen to A Sacttered Me, The Shocking Truth, and Solitude Within. All great!

Evergrey certainly have a unique style, writing dark conceptual albums of supernatural/alien/psychological menace and inner struggle in a modern gothic manner. Their music is laced with emotive, intense vocals and dramatic, heavy yet melodic instrumentation. Very cool, unique and interesting music which incorporates both progressive elements as well as a very melodic sensibility, making it accessible for mainstream listeners, yet engrossing for fans of progressive music.

"Solitude, Dominance, Tragedy" is a fantastic tour-de-force, and exceptionally well realized, both musically and lyrically. Extremely well performed and written, with technical and progressive guitar(flashy guitar solos and complicated, lengthy songs and melodic interludes)and keyboards which never detract or distract from the music itself. From what I can gather, this disc is a concept album about a secret coven of vampires...very gloomy and menacing, yet tastefully done....one of the better "gothic" modern metal albums ever. For metal fans who like intelligent originality...definately recommended!