Evans Blue’s album, “Letters from the Dead,” impresses due to stunning instrumentals

By Justin Reed

Staff Writer

Evans Blue’s strengths are pulled to the forefront in its fifth studio album “Letters from the Dead.” The band’s newest album showcases its powerful singing and songwriting abilities in each track.

“Letters from the Dead” is a well-crafted hard rock album that features stunning singing, perfect instrumentals, and an outstanding beat lead by the drums in each song in the album. “Letters From the Dead” also includes great lyrics to accompany the album’s clean sounding vocals.

Evans Blue is a Canadian rock band based out of Toronto that started in 2005. The band members met each other online and released their first studio album in 2006, touring the United States that summer with Taproot and since then have toured with Alice in Chains, Breaking Benjamin, and Three Days grace.

Evans Blue’s lineup has stayed mostly consistent through the years with only the changing of their singer to Dan Chandler and the addition of  Paramore’s drummer Jason Peirce for this album. Besides these changes the band has kept their instrumentals the same with Vlad Tanaskovic playing lead guitar, Parker Lauzon on rhythm guitar, and Joe Pitter on bass.

Singer Dan Chandler performs perfectly in each song with every track being full of his aggressive emotion but channeled cleanly and easily shows his passion for his work. Chandler’s vocal range is tested throughout the album as he moves from smooth vocals to a harsher tone to show off the emotion in songs on “Letters from the Dead” including “iGod” and “Just once”.

In “Letters from the Dead” Chandler performs wonderfully in each song while still keeping the topic of the songs intact and greatly expresses the tone of the album, which focuses on fixing oneself and dealing with the problems of life. The powerful lyrics of “Letters from the Dead” gives the listener a reason to listen to the album.

“Letters from the dead” features exceptional instrumentals that follow the style of the album as the songs change from a slower and calmer tone to a quicker and more aggressive feeling. The album also features stunning guitar solos that showcase Tanaskovic’s skill in “iGod” and “Comfortable with Hate.” “Letters from the Dead” also starts off each song with a slow instrumental introduction that keeps the album flowing smoothly.

Drummer Jason Peirce, on lend from Paramore, performed excellently throughout the entirety of “Letters from the Dead” helping to keep the album moving at a steady pace. With each song Peirce, helps incredibly to keep the beat with the tone of the song as the drums beat moves from a slower background noise to being exposed at the forefront in songs such as “Comfortable with Hate” and “iGod” and because of this the album is able to prosper.

Evans Blue’s “Letters from the Dead” is an overall perfect album that immensly surpasses any of their past work. “Letters from the Dead” features fantastic singing, beautifully crafted instrumentals, and strong drum work to support each song in the album.

“Letters from the Dead” was released on April 15th and can be purchased on iTunes and other streaming services for $9.99