When a metal fan thinks of Swedish bands, Meshuggah, At the Gates, In Flames, Opeth and Evergrey come to mind. In a country with rich musical talents, Evergrey have managed to release 8 albums in 15 years.  So, to celebrate the 15 year milestone they release a best of album.

There is also another reason the band releases this compilation now. Its lineup has been really steady for many years. But, then Henrik Danhage who was the bands second guitarist since 2000 and Jonas Ekdah who was the drummer since 2003 decided to leave Evergrey  to focus their careers on their other band DeathDestruction. So the band’s frontman Tom Englund and keyboardist Rikard Zander had some difficult times and Evergrey almost dissolved. But, they recruited guitarist Marcus Jidell, bassist Johan Niemann and drummer Hannes Van Dahl and they released the “Glorious Collision”.

So, to embark this new beginning they released this best of compilation. To be truthful this album does not give something new to the diehard Evergrey fan but if you have missed the band for the past releases this is a perfect compilation of songs throughout the band career, so that you can remember the older songs and learn some of the best new ones.

I really enjoyed the fact that they included some tracks from their live album “A Night to Remember”, this shows how good the band is in their live shows. There are also two previously unreleased unplugged tracks. The band is used to giving some live unplugged shows with great success and I’m sure that we can expect an unplugged album from them in the near future.

In conclusion “A Decade And A Half” is a really great way of introducing the band to the new fans. Maybe it should have some more acoustic songs so it would be a nice gift to the diehard fans but still it is a great compilation.
 

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Evergrey