### After Forever: After forever

#### 17/04/07 || Lord K Philipson

Let’s see here;

Chick vocals. Distorted guitars. Good production. Melodic.

I should like this. All of those 4 ingredients is something I appreciate in music. After Forever don’t really cut it though, no matter how fucken much they wanna be among the Within Temptation’s and Nightwish’s of the world. There are unavoidable comparisons between these bands. You know; orchestrations, masturbations and penises all around. It’s exactly the same in After Forever’s camp of faggotry.

It’s nice that they include some decent growls here and there (done by axeman Sander Gommans), not that it makes the actual music any more brutal, but it’s nice at least. If they had more of those, this might have become another story. A better story even. As it is now, it just feels like it’s something they include to make them stand out a little compared to their female fronted colleagues. In the end it’s pretty much the same though, no matter how you twist and turn the outcome on this disc.

I guess the chick’s got an ok voice, nothing more, nothing less. At times she’s approaching her best Tarja The Cumbucket impersonation with the operatic bullshit, but luckily – most of the times the bitch is concentrating on other styles, which I like more. Opera has fucken nothing to do with metal (see Therion, among others). There’s nothing in her voice that actually touches me, there’s no emotion nor real personality in them. They don’t floor me whatsoever. Hah, get the joke? Funny as shit. But anyways, they sound fine, and I guess that counts for something.

There are a few tracks that actually makes me tap my foot a little, though this review might imply different. “Evoke” is a decent one with its happy drumming and catchy chorus. “Withering time” is fine as well.

And ofcourse there are some absolutely hideous ones… “Cry with a smile” is a great example. The rest of the material is just average.

After Forever offers absolutely nothing you need, but it passes for a decent listen. Elevator music for the metal world.

5 “get some fucken balls already!” out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: Nuclear Blast
- Website: www.afterforever.com
- Band
- Floor Jansen: vocals
- Sander Gommans: guitar, vocals
- Bas Maas: guitar, vocals
- Luuk van Gerven: bass
- Joost van den Broek: keyboards
- André Borgman: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Discord
- 02. Evoke
- 03. Transitory
- 04. Energize Me
- 05. Equally Destructive
- 06. Withering Time
- 07. De-Energized
- 08. Cry With A Smile
- 09. Envision
- 10. Who I Am
- 11. Dreamflight
- 12. Empty Memories