Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Tom S. Englund, the leader of Evergrey, was asked in a recent interview with Poland’s MetalSide if the band’s recently deceased guitarist Henrik Danhage had any influence on the Swedish metallers’ impending fifteenth album, “Architects Of A New Weave,” which will be released by Napalm Records on June 5, 2026, as per Blabbermouth.
No, [Henrik] didn’t participate at all, so this album is made by the four of us. When we couldn’t get a communication going with Henrik, we needed to make a decision because we were going into mix, and we didn’t have any solos. That was pretty much the gist of it. I’ve recorded all of the rhythm guitars for the last five albums, basically. And I didn’t wanna call in a super-brilliant guitar player from some other band or some other famous guitar player just because to have a guitar player. So I asked Johan, the bass player, if he could play half the solos, and he did. So half of the solos are Johan playing. In a perfect world, we would have had Stephen come in before, but we didn’t, so… And then we didn’t wanna bring anybody in. We wanted it to be an album by the band Evergrey, and now it really is. So it’s by the four of us: Simen, Johan, Rikard and me. So, really cool.
Tom gave this response when asked why Henrik had departed Evergrey.
You need to ask him, honestly. He hasn’t told us why he chose to do what he did. But we asked for some changes. We asked him to be participating in a band. Where you split money in five ways, you need to work. And I guess it’s the same — if you have a football team, you need to have five guys, or 11 guys, in a football team, that play for the same team, that wanna do the same thing, that are as eager and as hungry to play for the team as anybody else. And if they’re not, then you probably should do something else. But we don’t know, really. We asked him for some changes, and he didn’t reply.
Tom mentioned Niemann’s guitar solos in “Architects Of A New Weave” as an example.
I think that’s the best story for us. Instead of, like I said, bringing in Yngwie Malmsteen on guitar or somebody who’s super famous on YouTube, like Ola Englund or somebody… Since Johan and me wrote most of the music anyway, he knows the music. So that would be the difference, coming in knowing the… I mean, I had to produce him a lot, but he’s a brilliant guitar player. And he also plays guitar solos in a way that I like the most. It’s solos that you can sing along to, in the Adrian Smith type of way. So, yeah, I think it worked out perfectly. I don’t think people will miss any soloing, for sure. I think it’s also a lot of guitar solos on this album.
Tom responded as follows on Platt’s addition to Evergrey after Stephen had previously covered for Henrik while travelling.
“Yeah, we obviously — we were in no rush. The album was already recorded and mixed. We had a long tour with him. We got to know him, and we actually asked him, like, four weeks ago, so it’s not that long ago, if he wanted to be in the band. We thought so, but you never know, because he also had an obligation with Scar Symmetry and all of that. But that seems to be no problem now since they are not touring, according to Per. Maybe they’re doing a show here and there. That’s what I heard anyway. So, all is good.
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