Evergrey - A Heartless Portrait: The Orphean Testament (2022)

Quickly returning after the highly emotional 2021 release “Escape of the Phoenix”, Evergrey continues the same path of melancholy with the excellent “A Heartless Portrait: The Orphean Testament”. Featuring over 50 minutes of mellow Progressive/Power Metal, with Tom Englund’s signature vocals, this album just further refines the band’s polished and effective style and delivers exactly what the fans are expecting.

The album opens with the soaring guitars and vocal arrangements of “Save Us”, a very powerful and mood-setting track filled with crafty atmospherics and a hefty dose of catchiness. The band’s mixture of explosiveness with melancholy oozes from pieces like “Midwinter Calls” and “Ominous”, one of our favorite tracks in this release thanks to the amazing vocal arrangements and killer guitar leads. For those preferring the band’s Power ‘ballads’, “Call out the Dark” is a fine addition.

As “Reawakening”, “The Orphean Testament”, and “The Great Unwashed” pass by, the band nicely settles into a groove with the best moments of this release being unleashed amongst the perfect combination of dramatic guitar leads, crafty drum patterns, and very emotional keyboard atmospherics. Everybody in the band feels fully in sync, and over the last few years have fully blended into a very cohesive and impactful style that keeps getting better and better with each release.

Closing with the heaviness and dramatic vocal arrangements of “Blindfolded”, and the calm melancholy of “Wildfires”, Evergrey have managed to completely satisfy their fans with another excellent and emotional release. “A Heartless Portrait: The Orphean Testament” shows the band is not slowing down and that they can still make slight improvements in their sound to keep things fresh and engaging for old and new fans alike.

Label: Napalm Records

Release: May 20th, 2022

Genre: Progressive/Power Metal

Country: Sweden