Album Review: Evermore - Mournbraid

We've had the discussion more than once regarding which particular niche in the metal world is the most retrograde, the most stuck in the cliches of the past. Often, the answer comes down on power metal, which not only has many bands fully content on never moving past the sound of the early days, but fully content to recycle some of the same melodic ideas. That makes power metal an easy genre to be a fan of, if you don't get tired of the same-ol'-same-ol', but it makes for a trying time if you don't need to hear the same thing for the hundredth time.

Every so often, though, power metal delivers something that hits the nostalgic spark in just the right way. It's in those moments we're reminded of why we loved the music when we did, and it also brings to mind questions about how and why we've changed over the years. That might be a bit weighty for this particular discussion, so let me cut to the chase.

Evermore have delivered to us an album that echoes from the past like one of the early Edguy albums. The grit of the guitars and some of the melodic choices are hugely reminiscent of "Vain Glory Opera" and "Theater Of Salvation", which are the exact albums that sent me down this path twenty-plus years ago. To hear that sort of music again doesn't feel stale to me the way the myriad Helloween clones do, perhaps because Edguy is a less common influence to hear, or perhaps merely because Edguy was always my favorite of that wave of power metal bands. You might hear early Hammerfall in all of this, and that would be just as accurate, but my perspective is my perspective.

The biggest asset the album has is a dedication to the mid-tempo. By keeping things a touch slower, the guitars have more power and crunch, and the choruses have more time and room to swell. This is power metal with a bit more 'oomph' than the lighter and happier variety. Especially with the old-school guitar tone, avoiding the fastest picking prevents the fuzz from washing over the riffs and turning them into a mash of noise. When they do settle into a chunky and muted groove, the thump hits just the way it should.

The one spot where this doesn't work for me comes in "Armored Will", which uses the double-meaning to claim their strength comes from being made of "heavy metal". I know it's a cliche of the genre, but the insistence on metal people constantly telling everyone how metal they are is the sort of thing that strikes of projection. Psychologically, I can see how it is as much to convince themselves as it is to convince anyone else, but I don't think it conveys the power and strength they think it does. Quoting Edguy's "Babylon" in the early verse of "Ravens At The Gates" tells me more about what metal means to them, to be honest.

Overall, "Mournbraid" is an album that does nostalgia the right way. These songs draw from the past without sounding stuck in it, and they pull from source material that hasn't been the subject of a hundred copies already. Edguy moved past this type of power metal very quickly, so it's interesting to hear an echo of it so many years down the line. In one sense, it's a nice reminder of what felt like a simpler time. In another sense, it's a peek into a parallel universe where Edguy didn't first evolve into a different kind of band, and then evolve into Avantasia.

Maybe I wouldn't have stuck it out for the ride as long if they hadn't, but I am enjoying this reminder of where we started. That's good enough for me.