EVERGREY - A Night To Remember
Evergrey from Sweden play dark progressive metal, at least that's what I read about them, and considering on what label they are signed, that should even make sense with such a band name. A Night To Remember is a live retrospective recorded in Gothenburg, giving the uninitiated listener a fair impression what this band has done in the last six years over the span of five studio albums.
Fans will probably be happy to have such a vast collection of songs arranged on this two-disc set, whereas people new to Evergrey (like me) will probably like their powerful take on dark (slightly progressive) metal, but in the end will somehow also feel overwhelmed by too much material to digest in a single take. Not that their music is hard to swallow, it's just that true highlights are sparse in the overall high level of song writing. Especially the opener Blinded shows the band from its most rocking side, with a very charismatic vocalist who doesn't for once sound like a eunuch, well balanced backing vocals and a musical approach lying somewhere between Nineties power prog (Dream Theater, Fates Warning) and a certain Seventies hard rock attitude.
At places people complained about the not too transparent sound, but then that's probably the way these guys sound when they play live, and if you really feel like wanting a glossier sound, you might as well buy their regular albums. I appreciate the rough sound, because it's more sincere than what you hear on a lot of so-called live albums. The more visual oriented metal fans better wait though until this same show is released on DVD very soon.
All in all a good introduction of a solid metal band that you can have in your collection but by no means must.