Live Review: Everygrey – Manchester

Maybe not the biggest turn out Rebellion has ever seen, but Sweden’s Evergrey make it a night to remember as their Emptiness Over Europe Tour chugs toward its pre-Christmas conclusion. Having criss-crossed the continent since the first weekend of November, Tom Englund and his progressive power metal cohort have allowed themselves barely four days off in that time.

It’s a punishing schedule for any band, especially one with thirty-years under its collective belt; but with that experience comes the stamina to deliver every night and, having been watching Evergrey on and off since their first Bloodstock appearance back at the Assembly Rooms in 2004, I can be confident that a masterful performance in on the cards tonight.

Set opener Falling from the Sun was the first single from this year’s Theories of Everything, the band’s fourteenth album. Big and bombastic, with a killer bottom end, it sets the tone for the evening. Tom’s vocals have a timeless quality that takes you back to the glory days when metal wasn’t being constantly divided and sub-divided. Sticking with the new record, Say arrives with a big, heavy stomp, guitars are punctuated by Rikard Zander’s light keys.

Midwinter Calls – five days too early, but fair dos – has a chant-a-long section; Distant feels a little like Magnum at times; while Eternal Nocturnal finds the band whipping up quite a storm. Bassist Johan Niemann has quickly found his groove with relatively new drummer, Simen Sandnes, recruited just this year, giving a platform for the six-string interplay between Tom and Henrik Danhage.

This tour’s sets are mostly culled from the band’s most recent records; the sweeping Call Out the Dark from 2022’s A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament), its relatively simple sounding structure impressively effective; the pulsing rhythms of Where Autumn Mourns’ heartache from 2021’s Escape of the Phoenix; and The Atlantic’s nautical vibes on Weightless from 2019.

The main set finishes with a rambunctious Save Us, in which Henrik is loosed to solo as though his soul depended on it, and while band are going through the motions of appearing to have finished, only to come back, one cannot help but ruminate on Evergrey’s standing in the pantheon of Metal.

Their dalliance with the progressive elements, laid out against a power metal template, align the band with fellow Scandinavians Opeth and Enslaved – except substitute death metal and black metal respectively in place of power metal – such is the complexity and density of the band’s music.

Like those two titans, Evergrey never let the core of their sound be bogged down by the expectations of progressive structures. When the band return for their encore, they do so with the oldest song of the evening: the twenty-year-old A Touch of Blessing, the haunting opening vocals subsumed by a keyboard-heavy main riff.

The band were touring The Inner Circle the first time I saw them in Derby, so it was a particular pleasure to hear this blast from the past. In stark contrast, the meaty and confrontational King of Errors follows, leading the set into the finale of Theories…’ One Way Through Silence.

Consummate professionals all, Evergrey deliver a set worthy of a band a couple of weeks into their tour, rather than a couple of months. There are no signs of fatigue on show, just a note perfect rendition of fifteen of the band’s most appropriate songs.

Tonight they are smack in the middle of a thirteen-night run that started in Germany, took in Belgium and will not see them having a night off until 23rd of the month. That Evergrey manage to appear so fresh and – dare I say – evergreen – is a testament to their commitment to the cause. That they play with such passion and emotion is a testament to them as craftsmen and musicians.