Band:	Evergrey
Album:	Recreation Day
Style:	Power metal, Progressive metal
Release date:	2003
Guest review by:	DreamWeaver

01. The Great Deceiver
02. End Of Your Days
03. As I Lie Here Bleeding
04. Recreation Day
05. Visions
06. I'm Sorry [Dilba cover]
07. Blinded
08. Fragments
09. Madness Caught Another Victim
10. Your Darkest Hour
11. Unforgivable
12. Trilogy Of The Damned [bonus]
    1 - As Light Is Our Darkness
    2 - Words Mean Nothing
    3 - The Shocking Truth

Evergrey is one of the most original prog bands you could ever know. It doesn't have the style of other known prog metal bands, such as Dream Theater, Ivory Tower, Queensrÿche or Fates Warning. They have their own heavy-dark kind of progressive metal. With their keyboards they can create different kinds of atmospheres: dark, blue, depressing and/or nostalgic.

In my opinion, this is one of the best records in 2003! Evergrey follow up the outstanding In Search Of Truth record with Recreation Day. An album that not only fills expectations, but far exceeds them. Everything from the music itself, to the flow of the album, to the vocalizing, to the musicianship has all been stepped up from an already high quality level. I thought In Search Of Truth would be one of those records that the band would never recover from, meaning it was so good that they'd never be able to top themselves. In these kind of cases, I enjoy being wrong! Evergrey has always written dark, emotional, melodic metal and Recreation Day is no exception. It's hard to describe it past that other than to say everything is just "better". The solos, both keyboards' and guitar's, is among the most fluid and meaningful in the business. The guitar lead breakdown in "End Of Your Days" is a great example. The singing keeps getting better with each subsequent release both in phrasing and melody/harmony use, as the song "I'm Sorry" abundantly shows. "Madness Caught Another Victim" is the acoustic song in this album. The song arrangements, while progressive, are not drawn out and overcomplicated. Everything about this album is tight and intelligent. The song flow is perfect, blending strong driving tempos with more ambient and melodic parts creating emotional hills and valleys that truly take the listener on a journey. The guitar tones are full and heavy; Evergrey is a great example of heaviness in progressive metal. The bonus track "Trilogy of the Damned" is simply brilliant; a piano and vocals song, it creates a depressing atmosphere, a mix of three song of previous albums (As Light Is Our Darkness, Words Mean Nothing and The Shocking Truth), a true masterpiece. It's going to be really hard for Evergrey to top this one. But, I thought that last time.

If you are a prog fan (even if you're not) or you're into melodic kind of stuff and you're looking for something different, I really recommend this album and this band.