Second release by this Dutch band who generated great expectations last year with their debut album "Prison of desire". They have been labeled as Gothic Metal from the start, since lately it seems that any product with this definition has better sales. However, After Forever show in their music many more metallic aspects than the strictly gothic ones.
It is easier
to define their music through their influences, which are pretty
clear: The Gathering, Nightwish and Theatre of tragedy. These
bands are also references for After Forever in the vocal section,
since the band's feminine voice alternates ranges very close
to those of Tarja Turunen and Anneke van Giersbergen.
When you hear them for the first time, After Forever can sound
like a clear copy of the aforementioned bands. Nevertheless,
they have their own personality, that one can observe, for instance,
in the Arabic-influenced passages they include in their songs,
a good example of musical crossbreeding (I hate this expression,
but you have to use it once in a while) as can be found in the
CD's third track "The Pledge of Allegiance". Personally, my
favorite would be "Zenith", where they show us their most powerful
as well as symphonic side. Another song we can underline, although
in this case for negative reasons, is "Imperfect Tenses", a
ballad that is so sugary that it could have been composed for
a "Disney on ice" show (These Disney guys will never understand
that the purpose of ice is to cool down whisky, not to create
shows with guys of very ambiguous sexual tendencies disguised
as coffee cups). In any case, we cannot let one song spoil the
work of this Dutch band, since the rest of their songs have
a very high standard, with very powerful guitars, a lot of symphonic
keyboards and Floor Jansen's voice, one of European Metal's
new divas.
Ivan Cateura
Translation: Fausto Navarro http://faustonavarro.com
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