EVEREVE E-MANIA ALBUM MASSACRE RELEASE: JUNE 11, 2001 REVIEW: AUGUST 17, 2001

In the early days, thunder struck upon the tomfools. Today I will just have to figure out another reprimand for lack of common sense. Let me tell you why. On a press photo Evereve is situated in a dump, looking angry indeed. One of the band members is "playing" on one end of a disposed vacuum cleaner hose. Another, probably the vocalist, is, well… "singing" in the other end of the very same hose. It may have been a little fun if there were any trace of irony what so ever. The album cover photo is of a woman rigorously tied up. It's all as brainless as it gets. What pills do these guys eat for breakfast?
By the looks of it, it's all set for me to start hating the band. Fortunately, the music is of a higher class than I had imagined.
What we have here is gothic metal in the family of late Paradise Lost and their likes. The music has a somewhat symphony-like orchestration with synthetic strings and different samples beside the distorted guitars and temperate voices. The band themselves describe the music as "cyber gothic metal". I really haven't managed to figure out where the cyber parts are in this very ordinary production, but I guess they are there somewhere. For all us 80's synthpop fans, Evereve deliver a decent version of the classic "Fade to Grey".
"E-mania" is a respectable piece of work but lacks the ability of really getting emotional, something this type of music needs. This is Evereve's fourth album since they formed in 1993 and I have a feeling they wanted to create something much harder than what became the result. Nevertheless, "E-mania" is worth a listening or two. Maybe.

ANDERS WIIK