The band that makes darkness beautiful is back with their eagerly awaited 15th album. Three of the tracks have been released already and the fans are giving them a lot of well deserved love: Evergrey seem to be getting better and better with each new project. Architects Of A New Weave is coming out in the midst of their busy concert schedule, with a number of festival dates and a full European and US tour. They will get to share the stage with Iron Maiden in Amsterdam and Paris later on this month, and will be supporting Hammerfall around the States, so, hopefully, the new release will help the new album get some good exposure. Unfortunately, UK dates are not planned this time around, but the band did tour this country in December last year.
Architects Of A New Weave is another mesmerising and epic project that will deliver to you everything we love about Evergrey: full-on progressive metal; deep, multilayered music; their signature sound and keyboards; dark (borderline depressing) lyrics; Tom Englund’s recognisable/unique singing style; great solos and mighty choruses.
The album has clear internal progression that could be described in four words (quote from the spoken intro): from shadows to starlight. To say that this is an optimistic journey would be twisting the truth a bit, as they don’t quite do optimism; after all, this band is known as the masterminds of melancholia, and darkness is all over their music and lyrics. The internal development, however, leads the listener from the place of desperation, pain, hurt, loss, and emptiness, to refusing to carry on that way, breaking free and owning your life. The lyrics are on par and in a similar realm to prog metal masters Symphony X, but without their mythological references. Evergrey are intense, deeply philosophical, somewhat abstract, but, mostly, sad and depressive. These songs are the monologues of a lost soul, written by a true poet, not simply a lyricist.
Evergrey’s signature sound is owed to a great extent to their atmospheric keyboards. You will hear them in all their beauty in ‘The World Is On Fire’, ‘The Script’, and ‘A Burning Flame’. Englund’s vocals are, as always, highly emotive and deeply heartfelt. Like fine wine, his particular singing style, similar to Tommy Karevik’s in Seventh Wonder, with intricate curves in the melody, and tunes weaving their way through the development of each track, is work of a vocal genius.
The “plot” develops gradually, leading the storyteller towards finding the light, so with ‘Leaving The Emptiness’, the tone and mood change. Optimism now seeps through in this uncharacteristically upbeat tune about new hope for positive changes. This carries on in ‘A Burning Flame’, with the urge to find your way and purpose, and ‘make life your own and your truth’. With ‘Call Off Your Lions’, everything becomes more epic, and Englund is joined by some powerful choruses.
After the album’s finished, it may leave you thinking and asking yourself the eternal questions: ‘did you ever close your eyes to find your way and your purpose’ (quote from ‘Burning Flame’)? Can we, and how do we, find our way from darkness to the light?
The album comes with some bonus material: bonus tracks ‘Heights’ and ‘One Heart’, as well as an album mix of the previously released standalone single “OXYGEN!” (2025). It also contains a demo version of ‘Longing’, instrumental tracks of ‘Leaving The Emptiness’, and a live version of ‘Falling From The Sun’, the hit single off the previous record, Theories of Emptiness (2024).
- Reviewed by Angelina Pelova.
- Released through Napalm Records on 5th June 2026.
Track List:
1. Welcome To The Pattern
2. The Shadow Self
3. Architects Of The New Weave
4. The World Is On Fire
5. Heaven
6. The Script
7. Leaving The Emptiness
8. Longing
9. A Burning Flame (Featuring Mikael Stanne)
10. Call Off Your Lions
11. Chains Of Shame
12. The Prophecy
