Anyone that’s read Ian Winwood’s excellent Bodies: Life And Death In Music will have some understanding of how difficult it is to be a rock star. Yes, it seems like a glamorous way to live and travelling the world to play music certainly has its moments, but the reality of it is gruelling. The parties, groupies and excess get most of the attention, but far more time is taken up by a brutal slog that plays havoc with your head. It’s an endless string of repetitive days on tour buses, where you barely get any alone time and spend a mere fraction of your life at home. For Jonas Ekdahl, it’s time to call it quits. Having spent a significant chunk of his adult life playing drums for EVERGREY, he’s understandably had enough of eating airport food and seeing motorways whenever he looks out of a window. He’s bowing out and while he’s still very much a part of the band’s extended family, his life on the road is at an end.
“When I first started, playing live shows was the best thing in the world, it was the best feeling to be on stage, and nothing could beat that. But over the last couple of years that feeling has shifted towards the songwriting and production aspect of music,” he explains, “it’s now got to the point where I feel that I’d rather be doing that instead.”
At the time of our chat, EVERGREY hadn’t revealed who Jonas’ replacement would be and despite offering him a Twix, he remained tight-lipped, and we couldn’t tease an exclusive out of him (it was later revealed to be veteran Norwegian drummer Simen Sandnes). However, he’s going out on top.
Theories Of Emptiness is EVERGREY’s fourteenth full-length album and quelle surprise, it’s terrific. The Swedes have been reliable workhorses of the European metal scene for decades now, but they’ve really upped their game in the last few years. The conventional wisdom is that 2001’s In Search Of Truth is their best work, but they’ve been on a creative high of late and if anything, are better now than ever before. This is their fourth album in six years and there’s no sign that the well of inspiration is running dry.
“After Escape Of The Phoenix, the pandemic hit, and we figured, instead of taking a break we would just keep on writing,” says Jonas. “We couldn’t go out and do any tours or shows, so we just wrote. We were in a good creative phase at the time. It turned into a new album, and then we kept going. I guess we’re just striking when the iron is hot and making the most of the time we’ve got.”
The surge of creativity triggered by the coronavirus lockdowns resulted in 2022’s A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament), a progressive-minded take on power metal with a dark overtone. It was excellent, but Theories Of Emptiness manages to outdo it. Despite the name, it’s also lighter than its brooding predecessor.
“It deals with different kinds and aspects of emptiness that you can feel depending on the situation. And it doesn’t always have to be a negative one, because I believe that most people are afraid to feel empty, but there’s also a positive side of emptiness as well. If you find inner peace, for example. If you have inner peace, then in a way you have emptiness.”
This optimistic outlook is evident in the music. There are fast riffs, vibrant melodies and catchy choruses aplenty. There’s a noticeable lack of their traditional Gothic-tinged ballads, and there’s even a riotous, crowd-pleasing anthem described as “EVERGREY meets W.A.S.P.” One Heart is a fist-pumping barn burner with fan-submitted backing vocals and the band sound like they’re having a great time playing it. EVERGREY have a reputation for dealing in heavy-going subject matter, but this one is a lung-bursting party song.
Not that they’re going to be skipping through fields of daisies and frolicking in the sunshine though, Theories Of Emptiness still has a touch of darkness about it. There’s a running theme of grief and loss in here, and tracks like To Become Someone Else aren’t afraid to scream their pain at the world. But there’s also a drive to overcome adversity, best exemplified in the uplifting Our Way Through Silence and the aggressive opener Falling From The Sun.
“We can go super dark if we want to, but we also learn to embrace the uplifting side more and more as well, to find the contrast between them.”
In other words, while EVERGREY are as emotive and melancholic as ever, but there’s a cautious hopefulness about them this time. Theories Of Emptiness is a potential Album Of The Year contender, and a fitting swansong for Jonas’ time in the band. It marks the end of an incredible run, but he looks happy and content to be away from the rigours of life on the road and get to sleep in his own bed more often.
And as he’s stepping away from the band who wrote In Search Of Truth, one of the best alien abduction albums ever, there’s one question we’ve got to ask: does he believe in extra-terrestrial life?
“Probably… yeah I think it’s likely. Maybe not flying around in saucers and abducting people, but we have no idea. We barely know what’s happening on this planet. I’m interested in extra-terrestrials and the universe and stuff like that, I think I’m a pretty spiritual guy. So, I’m very open minded to all that. If was only us, that would be super weird.” Keep watching the skis. Skies.
Theories Of Emptiness is out now via Napalm Records.
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