I'm a big Evergrey fan. I got into the band the day I heard SDT and was hooked instantly. A few weeks later I got their debut offering and then ISOT was released and it blew me away. I felt the band was getting better with each release from TDD to SDT to ISOT. ISOT became my favourite disc of 2001 and it still is my favourite Evergrey. Knowing that Tom & co. always try to top themselves I looked forward to Recreation Day quite a bit. The wait was long. Finally I picked it up as soon as it came out and now that I've owned for several months I feel it wouldn't be wrong to point out that I feel Tom's deep and emotional vocals seem to be drowned in the mix, mainly by the bass and rhythm guitars. This could be because, as Tom himself explains in the CD booklet, they tried a different recording method starting with the vocals (as odd as it sound to me) and the current popular recording application. Now I won't get into the fact if ProT is a good device to record albums or not, for I am not really in the know of. I do know it makes things a lot easier for bands and stuff, but is the final outcome as beautiful as it should be? I'm not too sure about that.
Some bands are, whether we like it or not, one-man bands. Don't get me wrong. I'm not putting any of the other Evergrey members down. They're all very talented and gifted musicians. They've all helped the band to bring something new to the table as far as the technicality thing in melodic progressive metal is concerned. They've shown many progheads that prog can still be as prog as it gets if you don't play XXX many notes per second or use the weirdest rhythm changes. But when I say "a one-man band", I mean I am pretty sure the very big majority of the band's fans are buying their records and going to their shows foremost for Tom Englund's unique and extremely emotional vocals combined with his songwriting. Take Tom out of Evergrey and the band would be no more. It's like taking Dio out of Dio, you know. That said, when we, the fans, fell so deep in love with the band we naturally expected to hear more of Tom's voice. Not where it is buried under the heavy rhythm section or dominated by the overall production. LaRocque is a fantastic engineer when it comes to the mix. So I wonder if the reason why the vocals ended up the way did is because Tom produced it. Or had to produce it. We all know Neil Kernon was supposed to do the album but never could due to the 9/11 thing. Kernon has produced Nevermore and Queensryche records and he's possibly one of the best out there.
So my curiousity is, has RD fallen some short distance off the mark due to the production? Was recording Tom's voice first and then follow it up with the instruments not as good an idea as it may have seemed in the beginning? Does anyone else feel it would have been better to hear Tom's vocals the way we did on the last two offerings of the band, especially ISOT?
That said, I still feel the bonus track "Trilogy of the Damned" is one of the best and most heart touching songs of the band ever. I love it. Thanks to everyone who had a hand writing, performing and recording it.
Some bands are, whether we like it or not, one-man bands. Don't get me wrong. I'm not putting any of the other Evergrey members down. They're all very talented and gifted musicians. They've all helped the band to bring something new to the table as far as the technicality thing in melodic progressive metal is concerned. They've shown many progheads that prog can still be as prog as it gets if you don't play XXX many notes per second or use the weirdest rhythm changes. But when I say "a one-man band", I mean I am pretty sure the very big majority of the band's fans are buying their records and going to their shows foremost for Tom Englund's unique and extremely emotional vocals combined with his songwriting. Take Tom out of Evergrey and the band would be no more. It's like taking Dio out of Dio, you know. That said, when we, the fans, fell so deep in love with the band we naturally expected to hear more of Tom's voice. Not where it is buried under the heavy rhythm section or dominated by the overall production. LaRocque is a fantastic engineer when it comes to the mix. So I wonder if the reason why the vocals ended up the way did is because Tom produced it. Or had to produce it. We all know Neil Kernon was supposed to do the album but never could due to the 9/11 thing. Kernon has produced Nevermore and Queensryche records and he's possibly one of the best out there.
So my curiousity is, has RD fallen some short distance off the mark due to the production? Was recording Tom's voice first and then follow it up with the instruments not as good an idea as it may have seemed in the beginning? Does anyone else feel it would have been better to hear Tom's vocals the way we did on the last two offerings of the band, especially ISOT?
That said, I still feel the bonus track "Trilogy of the Damned" is one of the best and most heart touching songs of the band ever. I love it. Thanks to everyone who had a hand writing, performing and recording it.
