Everon - Bridge - 2002
intro
I´m still enjoying last Everon´s album "Fantasma" when they release their following work. Time flies!
I´m going to name the members for those who don´t know this
German band:
Oliver Philipps: Vocals, guitar, piano,
keyboards - Christian Moos: Drums - Schymy:
Bass Ulli Hoever:Guitars (the first three
are playing together from the beginning)
review
In a recent interview with Oliver Philipps that you can read at progVisions he announced us the simultaneous release of two new albums. It is neither a double CD nor two parts of the same concept... the reason is that they have an overload of material, so they´ve decided to release two independent albums. So "Bridge" is the first one to be released and the second one "Flesh", will be soon released.
I´ve been following Everon´s career from the beginning and I´d have bet for a live CD after "Fantasma" (their fourth album). They´ve never made a live album and that would be an indispensable document inside every band´s discography. And there are lots of fans who don´t have the chance of seeing them on stage. I think now it´s very difficult to know how the early songs sound nowadays. When will we have a "Live"?
In "Bridge", Everon don´t lose their personality or their way of working. Although many detractors will say that is a lack of evolution. The persons who love their music will think this is a blessing because they still maintain a high quality. Again we can listen to a CD that blends the most epic moments you can imagine with tasteful melodies. Oliver, the band´s composer, easily writes marvelous melodies with piano and his voice almost "a capella"; most of the songs begin this way but always evolve towards a powerful but smart ending, that´s why I love this band, its power and energy is sophisticated but not too "heavy".
I usually praise the magnificent work of Gregory Bridges and his beautiful covers for Everon´s albums. But this time, although the cover is nice, loses "magic" and seems like a sci-fi comic.
Musically speaking, we can find here very dynamic tracks such as "Across the Land", "Ten Years Late" or "Carousel" (by the way, this song is composed by Ulli Hoever, the first time that Oliver let another member to write a song for the band), "Puppet Show" is an energetic instrumental track with great "rifs" and high skills by the whole band. The band always give us an instrumental track in each CD. A sonic delight plenty of energy is "Juliet", the delicate and moving "Travelling Shoes" that fades into the energetic"Driven". We can also listen to the monumental "Not This Time", an impressive 6:46 minutes long song (the longest of the CD) but it seems like a excerpt taken from a super suite. Something similar happens with "Bridge" because they could have develop it and made it longer. The CD ends with this song, which has a small prologue in the beginning of the CD, so this way the CD starts and ends with the same chords.
There are also more things to discover (the CD consists of 12 tracks) in this not so long (56 min.) CD. The first times I´ve listened to this CD it seemed to me a minor work, less ambitious (something similar happened when I listened to their third CD"Venus") but, after following listenings, I discovered all the background nuances and the attempt of exploring new sounds.
conclusion
"Bridge" is again another jewel, although I admit it has less carats than its predecessor "Fantasma". Now it´s time to wait impatiently for the imminent "Flesh".