Ever since albums like 'Solitude * Dominance * Tragedy' and 'In Search of Truth' helped Evergrey establish themselves as one of Power Metal's premier representatives, they have delivered one outstanding album after another, moving forward, never looking back.

'Torn' is musical located somewhere between 'In Search of Truth' and 'Recreation Day', and is stylistic a sophisticated and intelligent blend of dark and atmospheric power metal with touches of progressive metal. Tom S. Englund still writes some the most intelligent lyrics in metal today, and the music they have created to go hand in hand with them is first class.

The album is one of the least accessible albums from them ever, but once you have taken the time to let the songs blossom and open up you will discover all the finer details, and you will soon recognize all the traditional Evergrey trademarks are present; the album is as dark and atmospheric as before, the sound is exactly what you'd expect, Tom delivers his best vocal performance ever, the melody lines are sticky, the production is brilliant and the musicianship is outstanding.

But I am still not totally won over, because they do become it bit repetitive and the album does fall a bit shy of my personal favourite Evergrey albums: 'In Search of Truth' and 'The Inner Circle'. This is a brilliant power metal album judged alone, but with the strong back catalogue they do fail to reach the stratosphere, nevertheless this is still a great album!