Search - After Forever :: Remagine

Interesting, almost but not quite

Michael Evers | 08/01/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I will preface this review with two things. 1) I started listening to After Forever backwards, meaning that I started with their new release, and am working backwards, thus older knowledge of the band does not exist for me. 2) In today's day and age, female fronted bands are becoming more and more, and thus, they are going to be held to higher standards. Their is no shortage of operatic, classically train female vocalists starring in these bands. The real question is, does After Forever meet or exceed previous artists in the field or are they just another generic, rabble?



This album takes a pretty common theme, these days, female fronted with a male (or 2, at times) backing her. Not all songs feature male vocalists. Unlike Nightwish and a few others in the genre, the one of the male vocalists is very growlly, not Behomoth unintelligable babble, completely incoherant, and thus need a translator growls, but growls nonetheless. They also use another male vocalist, who by my standards, is quite bad, and he should just go about playing whatever instrument he is assigned.



Now, to the actual music!



The CD opens with "Come", but after an interesting keyboard string, it breaks out a guitar riff, which sounds very close to "King of Terrors" by Symphony X. At first, I was like, oh boy, not a good sign, but the actual music to the song is not a rip from the song, so it's ok. To note here, the opening vocals by Floor are very, very good. She has a very beautiful voice. Then you get into the chorus and she's doing some opera voice, which although decipherable, is overplayed and overused in this sort of genre. If I wanted to listen to Nightwish-esque, I would put in a Nightwish CD. We all want new, unexplored territory here. Then we go into some chorus with pretty much everyone singing, which really isn't bad, but then after that, Floor busts out the most beautiful voice I have every heard. I sent shivers down my spine! This is how she should sing, and does more of this on their newest, self titled album.



Next we have "Boundaries are Open", which starts nice and pretty much finishes that way. It has a very intersting main line, and kinda feels like I might bust this track out while cruising in a car. For some reason, with this song, I think of Virgin Steele, "The Buring of Rome". My only gripe, if it really is one, is that this song has no real chorus to it, more just screaming the name of the song -- a bit hammerfallish, and the only real complaint.



Living shields is either a like it or hate it; personally, as I'm not a fan of growling, I'll leave it.



I think the next 2 songs "Being Everyone" and "Attendance" are pretty generic and bland. Personally, I think a bit more effort could have gone into them, they are OK tracks, but definately not ones I will put on my favorites playlist.



The next song "Free of Doubt" is intersting. It has a very good keyboard line, boarding actually on very popish.



Next we have "Only Everything" and again, I just can't seem to get into this song; it's slower tempo, and for whatever reason, I just do not find anything appealing to it.



"Strong" is the next song, and it's a ballad. But let me tell you, as a guy, I find ballads appealling, as if a breath of fresh air, but most are generic and mindless and put very little thought into it. 80's ballads are a thing of the past, but Strong is probably one of the better ones you'll hear out of this genre. The song is well played and written. Kudos!



"Face your Demons", "No Control" and "Forever" are all good songs. Nothing mind boggling, but definately, favorites material.



All in all, it's a solid release. I see where they have come from, and can say, that where they are heading is in a better direction. In their self titled album, they move even further away from their opera singing, and move more in line with what I find is appealling to me, her singing as her and not an opera singer. At times, it will fit in with a song, but as I mentioned before, there is so much of that already.



Floor has a unique voice, one that doesn't require effects and other stuff to make her sound great. Her voice is mature, not kiddy or pop oriented (like Annette from Nightwish, sorry). She also has a very powerful voice and can be heard, and clearly, I might add, through all the instrumentation.



One last comment is this album has very little direction. It's definately not a concept album, and more in line with "The First Chapter" by Circus Maximus. What I mean by that is, each song has a life of it's own. One song might be heavy, heavy distortion on the guitar, and another might be cleaner. I cannot find out if they are trying to be progressive, goth, or symphonic. It's hard to tell, since there are elements present in each. Judging by this and their next album, I would honestly say, they are pushing more progressive (yes, they have an epic on their 5th album), and pushing more away from the female fronted masses.







"