I had in June, the pleasure to meet Rikard Zanders virtually to speak about Evergrey’s latest album A Hearthless Portrait (The Orphean Testament). On the base of this interview I have written a review about the latest album. This was actually the time that I became an Evergrey fan as the complexity and musicality sucked me into their music.

As it happened Evergrey recently visited Dublin part of their album tour, as a result I will write about my experience seeing Evergrey bringing this very complex album alive. The support on the night was Virtual Symmetry (progressive metal) and Fractural Universe ( technical death metal). As a consequence, I will first dive into the support bands, then discuss the Evergrey set and in the end I will give summary of the night.

Virtual Symmetry

The first support band set the venue on fire. Marco Pastorino the signer of Visual Symmetry had so much passion , energy to give to the audience! Marco was just bouncing all the time from one corner to another giving everyone a fair share of attention and while doing this he came everytime really close to the audience making a very deep connection with everyone. Furthermore, his voice was one best melodic ones I have ever heard in my life.

Fractural Universe

Fractural Universe was quite an interesting twist of the night. The band was far heavier than the opener of the night and the manin act. As a result, a sandwich effect was created. For some a great escapism from the melodic tunes for others like me it was quite heavy on the stomach.

Despite, the sandwich effect I must say that it is a band worth out to check out. They played flawlessly their complicated set and their vocalist Vince had a powerful voice making it easy to understand the lyrics. What’s more, the band cleverly used the venue (Opium) to their advantage by using several lighting techniques that was aligning each time with the song.

Evergrey

Whereas visual symmetry was driven by the singer Evergrey had a different approach. It was much more focused on guitars, musicality, instrumental complexity and bringing the music alive with different lighting techniques.

Interaction

The set was started with a very typical and complex melody setting the mood. The band didn’t lose anytime to the interact with the audience after setting shop. They kicked their set off with “Save Us” a song that came to be thanks to the fans who submitted their voices when the band was working on A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) album. It immediately sparked recognition and interaction from the audience. As a consequence, from the start of their set you were sucked into their music as well as engaging with it. The highest point during the concert in terms of engagement was the midsection where Tom smartly encouraged the crowd to sing together “Oh oh oh” ( Midwinter Calls) making the atmosphere extraordinary and creating togetherness.

Guitarwork

Next to the great interaction with the crowd, Evergrey did an outstanding job on the guitars. Tom, Henrik and Johand played great guitar riffs. They also, had a great interaction with each other playing sometimes oppositie each other. As result, the concert had a great dynamic.

Lighting

Furthermore, Evergrey brought the music greatly alive with using the lights. Each song had a distinctive colour of light and intensity. As a consequence, you get even more sucked into the music as the lighting perfectly fitted the melody and the song itself.

The frontman

The last thing that was so great about Evergrey was Tom himself. Being a frontman and playing guitar at the same, is not an easy task. You can’t of course run around and come really close the auidence. However, Tom greatly compensated this by bringing the songs alive with certain gestures, movements and giving the audience very fun stories and jokes between breaks.

Verdict

Evergrey has certainly exceeded my expectations. In fact it became instant one of my favourite bands to see live. Despite, their complexity with regard to music the concert was quite easy to follow. The very reason for this was the interactiveness of the band guiding the crowd and the lighting setting the atmosphere.

Summary

Each band had something unique to offer on the night; Visual Symmetry set the venue on fire with passion, energy and vocals, whereas Fractural Universe woke everyone up with flawless tunes and a great lighting spectacle and the main act Evergrey just offered a mix of everything.

To be honest I am not entirely a sandwich person as I like consistency, but I would say for this night it worked out greatly as each band had their own merits.

Focussing solely on Evergrey, I would defintely recommend of seeing them live. The live concept is much easier to explore than their studio albums. The very reason for this is the live factors such as crowd interaction and lighting techniques. As a result, you get a better and complete taste of their great and innovative ideas.

”EVERGREY IS DEFINITELY WORTHWILE TO SEE LIVE AS THERE IS SUCH A STRONG CONNECTION“

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