“I think we should be bigger everywhere!” admits Evergrey guitarist/vocalist Tom S. Englund with a hearty laugh. “That’s the honest truth! We had a good thing going in America when we had all of these videos on MTV and were doing these cool tours with Iced Earth, In Flames and Arch Enemy. We were there quite a lot over the span of two years—which is how you have to do it in America. When the Torn album came out, however, our label almost went into bankruptcy, so that affected our album in a major way. No money was spent on promotional trips or interviews like this one right now, so of course it died for us. Now we’re back!”

Sweden’s Evergrey are indeed back, and have brought their inimitable brand of passionate, thoughtful metal to the masses once again with Glorious Collision. Following up 2008’s troubled Torn opus, Collision reveals three new pieces of the Evergrey lineup puzzle—guitarist Marcus Jidell, Therion bassist Johan Niemann and drummer Hannes Van Dahl—who have entered the fold, with the band sounding leagues stronger and heaps more energized, as a result.

“Well, at first we were terrified, of course,” admits Englund about the personnel shift. “We didn’t even know if we were going to continue. We decided to compose for a week and see what came out, and material just started flowing out of us! We’re really happy now, and relieved I’d say is the biggest word to describe Evergrey right now.”

Although the band’s new blood didn’t have much of a say when it came to the lion’s share of Collision’s stylistic course, Englund is more than enthusiastic about how the whole process came together, revealing, “It was fresh enough being able to decide things with Rickard [Zander, keyboards]; that was a big change. Before this, we had always been a democratic band, where everyone had their say, regardless of whether or not they wrote the song. This time, Rickard and I could create what we wanted for whomever we wanted, for as long as a time as we wanted! It was really weird for us, but cool, as well. The new guys came after we had created most of the album ourselves, but they offered their own views and ideas, and there was a really harmonious way of thinking between all of us. Even though they didn’t write the majority of these songs, they most definitely had their input.”

There are a couple of aspects surrounding Englund’s unique vocal style which set it apart from so many of his contemporaries: his emotional delivery, and the personal threads which are woven into each, expressive line torn from Tom’s velvet vocal chords.

“Some bands sing about dungeons and dragons, and do that very well,” says Tom, “…but for me this is like writing a book, with me in the starring role. Other than Inner Circle and The Search For Truth, Evergrey is very much about these feelings I myself have, down at the core of things. For me, it’s easier to write from this personal standpoint; I can’t imagine doing it any other way. Of course, you change as a person over time, and the way you write and think changes with that, especially for a band like Evergrey.

“For me, it’s been an ongoing evolution. I grow as a person, and that immediately affects my songwriting, because everything I write is personal; it’s about ME.”

The unfortunate other end of wearing the heart on one’s sleeve is that unenviable airing of dirty, inter-band laundry. Yet, Evergrey has remained nothing if not professional—some might even say ‘mum’—about what’s gone down over the previous few years surrounding the Torn album; a record which served as the band’s career low point, quality-wise.

“These [problems in the lineup] started to occur maybe one year before Torn,” says Tom, “and I wouldn’t really say it affected the songwriting, because we’ve always remained professional, so even though we didn’t enjoy each other’s company, we still made all the shows…even if they weren’t always fun. Same thing with Torn; we made the best album we could make at the time, and I think it has some killer songs. I also think that maybe the audience is able to see, feel and hear things which you, as a band, might expect them to either not notice or gloss over. They can tell if it’s genuine or from the heart…so all props to them! Of course, we’ve never intentionally went into any situation to make a bad album, or even a half-hearted album, but—and this is the honest truth—we’ve put our hearts into every record. Being emotionally satisfied or unsatisfied will, of course, affect how that album turns out, as well.”

Although we’re proud to report that all IS well that ends well—Glorious Collision is a barn-burning return to form revisit from the Evergrey we know and love—there still exists that bit of confusion which has always seemed to have swirled ‘round the band’s sound…is it ‘progressive?’

Maybe, but not as we know it, Jim.

“I actually think that the term ‘progressive’ mean to different things, depending on which audience you’re speaking,” explains Tom. “The smaller audience already has an idea of what ‘progressive’ means, yet to the larger audience, ‘progressive’ means ‘weird.’ This is something which hasn’t helped us very much; it’s actually put us in a genre and corner where we don’t belong. I also don’t feel it’s fair to us musically, or to bands who are actually playing progressive music. Of course we have elements which I would call quite…’musical.’ We’re not as talented as Dream Theater of course. We’ve never been, and we’ve never claimed to be.

“Our goal was to go out to be as good at our instruments as Dream Theater, and to bang our heads like Deicide. That was our goal…and we’ve accomplished the latter!”

“We just play metal. Melodic metal. DARK, melodic metal, if you want to, but we’ve never labeled ourselves as ‘progressive’. Technical at points, perhaps, but this isn’t the element which we’ve wanted to bring to the forefront. Writing good songs is the key.”

Written by MetalGeorge