19th March 2021

Review: “Emerge” by Everture

Everture were founded in Kokkola, Finland in the Autumn of 2015 by vocalist Jere Kuokkanen, who spent the following 18 months getting a line up together before releasing their first demo “For Tomorrow” at the end of the summer of 2017. Having gained some attention with that very demo, the band, who now see him joined by guitarists Matti Hautakangas and Oskari Niskala alongside a rhythm section of bassist Samuli Kielenniva and drummer Olli Vuoti, started playing gigs and now after 3 single releases and 400k streams in Spotify the band seemed set. But committing the album to tape was harder than it seems, a drawn out process with stretching schedules for the guitars to be recorded and a winter of discontent while the band had to wait…

…it was finally completed an the result is an album that paints in light and shade with a sound that falls between modern Metalcore and a more Traditional Metal offering. The soaring clean vocals from Kuokkanen on “In Between” are backed by some savage uncleans while the blistering solo and clean crisp drum sound make for a polished sound with high production value. Continuing the trend into “For Tomorrow” which has more unclean vocals, glorious lead licks and some 80’s pop leaning clean vocal stylings, it’s abundantly clear that Everture have everything they need to be a commercially successful band with a broad appeal due to having a great balance to the music they create. The clean vocals have integrity and would have got them plenty of MTV airplay back in the day, while there is enough bite in the uncleans to keep more hardened Metal Heads happy as well and the lack of any accenting should go down very well in North America. Telling a story of clinging onto hope under oppressive powers, “Undersky” is without doubt an arena filling cut with big melodic phrasing before “The River Flows” drives into darker territory with some more involved technical riffs, a raging affair with a couple of really juicy breakdown moments which still manages to hold onto the melodic aspects, including some icy keys that are hauntingly beautiful. Those flow into “Promises“, a compassionate ode to depression that keeps the album together neatly by not compromising on the pacing despite the more melodic leanings. It servers as the opportunity to being a sumptuous rich solo out but keeps the percussive thunder in place so you get the best of both Worlds.

The In Flames esq “Ivory Tower” injects a lethal dose of the Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal sound while being surprisingly politically aware as it tells of humanity living lives they hate, chasing things they don’t need like rats in a trap, something which really resonates as we’re all caught in the Matrix. Building on the foundations of the previous track and bringing the rampaging gallop of Metalcore “The Unfortunate End” adds a moodier cut to the offering with another soaring lead part that is simply mesmerising. “White Lies, Black Skies” finds the band on even heavier ground with Kuokkanen finding new, hither to unheard lows in a perhaps more personal cut that deals with the man in the mirror in moral self reflection. As a whole, the song benefits from that lyrical depth with Kuokkanen somehow squeezing an impossible extra certain something from his vocal performance. The cathartic Twin Peaks inspired “My 52 Shades” creates a mournful melancholic atmospheric anti-ballad in the first half but in a stroke of genius, builds to a heavier headbanging Progressive Metalcore rager from then on in. Ending the album with an obvious single in the brilliant “Closure” is a nice touch that ensures that quality flows throughout the record as it lyrically acknowledges the light of a new dawn, a fresh day and the strength found from enduring hard times and surviving to tell the take, so with this debut album, Everture can no longer be considered Emerging but Emerged [7.5/10]

Track listing