Everdawn is a symphonic metal band based out of New Jersey. The band was originally known as Midnight Eternal. Following successful tours in support of Queensryche and Therion, the band went through a line-up change during the demo phase of their second album. The core writing team of Richard Fischer, Boris Zaks, and Daniel Prestup remained intact. With the addition of Alina Gavrilenko on vocals and Mike LePond (Symphony X) on bass, the band rechristened themselves as Everdawn.
Through the course of eleven epic new songs, the band delivers 48 minutes of progressive symphonic excellence on their conceptual work Cleopatra. The album was mixed and mastered by noted engineer/musican/producer Dan Swanö at Unisound (Opeth, Katatonia, ao). Therion vocalist Thomas Vikström provides additional guest vocals on one track.
They start with Ghost Shadow Requiem: a heavy symphonic metal opening track. I like Alina’s vocals: they have a reach we are used to hear from Opera minded vocals and can also sing in a normal way. The guitars sound smooth and nice. Stranded In Bangalore starts with strong vocals and heavy guitars. It reminds me a bit of Xandria (in a good way).Title track Cleopatra rages on and keeps on firing off great vocals mixed with lots of pathos, a nice synth and a great guitar sound! It’s a powerful song with a positive feel. The song touches you like the first ray of light in the early morning, but knowing the darkness lures. Enjoy the guitar solo halfway! Your Majesty Sadness starts slower and sounds a bit deeper and with more soul. This is also the song where you hear Therion vocalist Thomas Vikström. It’s a cool duet and works out fine! I hope they can bring it on stage too like this, one day! Infinity Divine goes back to the opera diva sound and goes really strong vocal wise! Pariah’s Revenge mixes an opera approach with fragility and strength in the vocals making it a very rich in variety and interesting song. The tempo also changes from time to time, just as the guitar sound. Lucid Dream feels like as if you are floating away whilst the song is playing and before you know … it’s over. Heart Of A Lion sound like a classic symphonic metal track with an opera-minded voice behind the mic.
Toledo 712 A.D. is an instrumental and that’s just perfect for fans of instrumental music and I’m not. Rider Of The Storm sounds like a heavy metal ride on a storm and filled with passion and energy. Closing song is The Last Eden : a powerhouse of a song with a nice tempo and the right person in the studio behind the decks! This is going out with a big boom!
Links:
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Midnight_Eternal/3540411006
https://www.facebook.com/EverdawnOfficial/
https://www.everdawnofficial.com/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfYm7p6ySHPB2Q5tzm18Sdg
