Evermoore
Nero
6.3
In a world where the popularity of your music is directly proportional to the amount of friend requests you can send out, it's nice to see that there are still bands that bust their real world hump in hopes of living the metal dream. Since '03, Sweden's Evermoore has put out six demos. Seriously, six. Their story isn't Behind the Music worthy and they're not exactly going to be giving the keynote address at the next success seminar led by Trump's hairpiece, but their stick-to-itiveness is the kind of stuff that sends blood rushing to the nether regions of any high school football coach. Of course, all of that wouldn't mean a damn if the band wasn't able to churn out some listenable material.
Demo numero seis, Nero, is straightforward 21st century heavy metal/power metal built from the same kind of thick riffs that made up Raunchy's first couple albums, minus the over-the-top axe wanking of the former and the industrial slant of the latter. The pro producers have bestowed upon Evermoore the same kind of guitar tone that has graced recent entries from Scar Symmetry and the like, which gives Nero a nu-melodeath sheen. But, beneath the glossy production lies a modern metal outfit with slight hard rock touches. They never get too speedy, sitting barely above what one would call midpace, and they never indulge their inner shredder, favoring chunky riffs and synths that give their songs body instead of flash. Not surprisingly then, Evermoore is at their best working within the confines of the basic verse/chorus makeup which translates into a set of songs that are predictable but not painfully so.
At their worst, Evermoore is still a demo band making demo mistakes. There's a sense that they're still feeling out their sound, still looking for the right elements/song types. As one expects, this leads them down some rocky paths. The seven-minute title track drags without a strong enough hook to anchor it. "Serenity Now" is equally as clumsy as Evermoore flat out ignores (or doesn’t understand) the inherent campiness of the prerequisite power metal ballad. They try to sell it with a straight face and tongue-less cheeks, which sucks any possible fun out of the hokey build-up. It completely misses the mark, but credit vocalist Jakob Ollander, whose atypical non-operatic husky singing makes these failed deviations more tolerable than they should be.
Evermoore has crafted an okay little demo devoid of surprises, but one is willing to go through the motions since their highlights are rather likeable. If they concentrate on making more of their hooks and packing their best bits into catchy three to three-and-a-half minute rockers, they'll do well. They seem to have the work ethic to get there and, as more and more bands build only their net hype and get signed without even playing a show, the fact that these Swedes have more drive than John Daly swinging Tony Robbins as a human club is comforting.
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