lukretion
Evergrey’s debut album is a rather mixed affair. It already contains the blueprint of the distinctive sound the band will develop to amazing results in the course of their career, showing that Evergrey were unafraid to try and carve their own way in a scene – that of progressive metal – that at the time was overcrowded with dozens of bands all sounding like clones of Dream Theater. However, one also has the definite impression that Evergrey did not quite yet know what to do with their newly-found sound: the songwriting is rather aimless and uninspired and the delivery seems rushed and underdeveloped. To make things worse, the production is atrocious: even for the standards of the time, the album sounds pretty bad and amateurish. As I said, quite a mixed affair.
Evergrey are the kings of despair. All their albums are brooding, dark, melancholic beasts and The Dark Discovery is no exception. The band’s sound is rooted in classic heavy metal (Iron Maiden, King Diamond, Savatage), but Evergrey brings in a lot of more contemporaneous influences, from US power/ thrash metal (Iced Earth come to mind), to symphonic and prog metal, and even gothic metal (for example, in the use of female vocals and choirs). The prog metal ambitions are also evident in the complexity of the compositions, with songs that are typically 4 to 5 minutes long and are occasionally weaved together by recurring themes, forming mini-suites in the classic progressive rock tradition (“As Light Is Our Darkness”; “Beyond Salvation”). However, the most distinctive element of Evergrey’s sound is without doubt Tom S. Englund’s voice. His vocal delivery – here as in all subsequent albums of the band – is unique. The typical male prog metal singer, especially at the time, is known for his high-pitched and cleanly aseptic vocals. Englund’s delivery lies at the opposite end of the spectrum. His tone is dark and his voice is husky. Yet, his vocals are incredibly melodious, setting him apart from the heavier thrash metal canon where gravelly voices like Englund’s are more common. Englund’s singing is passionate and dramatic: he is one of those singers who seem to live on their skin the lyrics they sing. To this day, there are not many vocalists that sound like Englund, he is one of a kind and is widely recognized as such in the scene.
Although “The Dark Discovery” contains all the right ingredients to make for an interesting ride, it ultimately falls flat. There are two main reasons for this. First, the album mostly contains weak and forgettable material. Quite simply, the eleven songs of “The Dark Discovery” are not very good. I chalk this down largely to the band’s inexperience. The songwriting feels directionless and underdeveloped. Most of the songs build and build, but do not really seem to go anywhere and they lack the melodic hooks to leave a lasting impression on the listener. Evergrey attempt to inject some dynamics in the songs, alternating quiet and heavy parts throughout the album, but in most cases the transitions are not very smooth and come across as rushed. The arrangements are also quite weak. For instance, the keyboard parts do not seem to really fit in with the rest of the music and in most songs they feel out of place. Patrick Carlsson’s drum work is impressive, but his intricate drumming does not always gel well with the guitar and bass, which are instead quite basic and pedestrian. This is another issue I have with the album: neither Englund nor Dan Bronell strike me as very proficient guitar players. Their riffage is average and samey, which really bogs down most of the material of the album. The guitar solos also do not sound particularly inspired. The performances of guest musicians Andy LaRocque (King Diamond) and Mattias Ia Eklundh (Freak Kitchen), who provide solos on “Closed Eyes” and “When the River Calls”, are far superior and make you wonder how much better this album could have been if Evergrey had a slightly more proficient guitar player in their rooster.
The second reason why I think the album does not really work is the sound production that is really poor even for 1990s standards. It is actually quite surprising that this is the case, given that the LP was recorded and mixed at Los Angered Recordings studios by Andy LaRocque, who will end up producing quite a few top-notch albums in his career. Yet, The Dark Discovery really sounds terrible. The guitars are murky and mushy to the point that, whatever riff Englund and Bronell manage to come up with, it all ends up sounding the same. Even Englund’s vocals suffer from the rather poor mix by LaRocque, which makes the singer barely audible at times. That the mix is quite poor is also clear from the fact that the drums, keyboards and guitars do not really gel well in any of the songs.
Overall, The Dark Discovery is really only an album for completionists. It contains mostly weak material that is badly produced and has not aged well at all. Yet, this is where the Evergrey magic started, so the album remains archaeologically interesting for those who are curious to track down the roots of the sound that brought Evergrey to fame. And that sound is all already here – dark, gloomy and dramatic, Evergrey have been sounding like Evergrey since the very beginning.
[Also published on https://www.metal-archives.com]