Review by JD on May 30, 2012.

Sweden’s Evergrey has never impressed me, yet they get some killer reviews and good press. I now get one of their older albums to review, and I sit down with an open mind to see what it is that I ether have overlooked... or reaffirm what is it that I don’t like about this band and their music.

"The Inner Circle" has been touted as one of their best releases ever and I have listened to the album now four times to give it a proper chance. What I have heard on this album through the four plays it got was the realization that this album really is not worthy of the adulation it had gotten. What I was hearing, was not metal... definitely not metal.

Lackluster writing that seem to be slapped together, half hearted riffs that are ridiculous to a fault and sounding like a bargain basement Nickelback without the talent to pull even that cheesy shit off. And that my friends are the strong points on the album. Ten songs that the titles seemed to hold some promise of blowing me away - ten songs that simply are bad songs, and are not metal. Can’t get worse than that, boys and girls.

I have heard two other Evergrey albums ("Torn" and "Glorious Collision") and a few single songs over the years, and they were kind of good in a way, just not my style. "The Inner Circle" on the other hand is bad from start to finish, really bad. The band seemingly was going for a more radio friendly, commercially lucrative sound to appeal to a wider audience and fell flat on their asses. They are a metal band but on this album, they forgot that fact and went into commercially boring. Thank God that they seemed to finally remember that fact... they are Metal... this album I think they claim ignorance.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 5
Atmosphere: 3
Production: 4
Originality: 4
Overall: 3.5

Rating: 3.9 out of 10