Evergrey: more crunching prog as brutal riff power pounds into the gothic bleakness

Feel-sad prog metallers Evergrey return with 13th studio album A Heartless Portrait

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Evergrey: A Heartless Portrait cover art
(Image: © Napalm)

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Evergrey have been at this game for more than 25 years now, so they must be doing something right to have reached studio album number 13. 

Unlucky for some, but for these rather morose Swedes it’s pretty much business as usual, with mainman guitarist/vocalist Tom Englund leading from the front, his passionate and often soulful vocals perfectly complementing their trademark crunching prog metal. 

The group are no strangers to dealing in melancholia; Wildfires, Midwinter Calls, Ominous and The Orphean Testament are the pick of the bunch for emotional anguish and soul searching here, while Reawakening and Blindfolded inject some brutal riff power into the gothic bleakness. 

At times it feels like misery overload, but Evergrey are masters of the genre.

Essi Berelian
Essi Berelian

Whether it’s magazines, books or online, Essi has been writing about rock ’n’ metal for around thirty years. He has been reviews editor for Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, rock reviews editor for lads mag Front and worked for Kerrang!. He has also written the Rough Guide to Heavy Metal and contributed to the Rough Guide to Rock and Rough Guide Book of Playlists, and the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles (13th edition). Most fun interview? Tenacious D – Jack Black and Kyle Gass – for The Pick of Destiny movie book. An avid record/CD/tape collector, he’s amassed more music than he could ever possibly listen to, which annoys his wife no end.