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Rating: After Forever. A name that evokes one of the seminal bands of today's symphonic scene alongside their fellow countrymen Within Temptation. A band that lacked the courage to change their sound, transitioning from gothic to symphonic, from prog to the heavy of Remagine.
“Prison Of Desire” is the first cry of the Dutch band, released by Transmission Records, a label the band recently left. The genre offered is undoubtedly Gothic Metal and it's the only album of the band that can be classified under this label, as Sander himself has stated many times. The band learned the lesson imparted by the masters of the genre, from Tristania to Theatre Of Tragedy, yet adding a considerable dose of personality and original elements, not least the notable progressive influences that carve this masterpiece. A dark yet grandiose album, with a barely 18-year-old Floor reaching an extraordinary level of expressivity. As far as the songwriting is concerned, Mark Jansen's touch is evident: for heavens' sake, I don’t disown the last two albums, in fact, “Invisible Circles” in my opinion is the band’s best album, but the neoclassical atmospheres are typically his work.
The CD opens with “Mea Culpa”, an Intro. This piece features an actual choir, the After Forever Choir, which includes Sharon Den Adel of Within Temptation. “Leaden Legacy” is the first true track and is a masterpiece of rare skill: a piece that manages to be both romantic and decaying yet powerful. Floor's chilling interpretation is accompanied by growls, and the keyboard intervention, which gives the whole a very gothic flavor. “Semblance Of Confusion” comes with a majestic and stormy onset and is seasoned with many elements borrowed from the neoclassical, like orchestrations (actually reproduced by synths). The sound of the acoustic guitar and orchestrations introduces us to the beautiful “Black Tomb”, a very dark, gloomy, and shadowy piece, full of solid rhythmic progressions and horrific keyboards. These latter are superb and, together with the guitars of clear death matrix, they know how to recreate a respectable wall of sound.
“Follow In The Cry” is introduced by the sound of a sitar and already represents the band’s love for oriental sounds, a love that will be flaunted in many of the band’s tracks (“My Pledge Of Allegiance #1”, “Attendance”, “Sins Of Idealism”…). It is also the band’s first single. It is an airy and regal piece, where the choirs dominate the scene. “Silence From Afar” is a piece with strong neoclassical hues, which somewhat recalls the subsequent “Run For A Fall” by Epica. It starts melancholically and nostalgically, then grows in the superb second part, explosive and determined, which brings the listener to a state of pure ecstasy. The next track is “Inimical Chimera”, the darkest piece of the lot, crammed with unusual rhythms, combative guitars, and horror recalls. A masterpiece of emotions, full of infinite sensations, as gloomy as an underground gallery where the exit is not visible. “Tortuous Threnody” is a very gothic piece, entirely based on resounding riffs. Excellent is the inclusion of the growl, very narrative, which makes the track much more evocative. “Yield To Temptation” is introduced by a very majestic choir and very combative riffs. A fine gothic piece, disturbing and distressing: in many moments the music is reminiscent of the English band Cradle Of Filth's softer version. An excellent song. “Ephemeral” is a kind of ballad where the growl is not used, leaving Floor's voice free.
Many have compared After Forever to their fellow countrymen The Gathering: in reality, the two bands are very distant, having in common only the playing of metal (no longer the case for The Gathering) with a melodic touch supported by a female voice. However, in the beautiful “Beyond Me” the two bands converge: in the last track, Floor duets with Sharon of WT and in the first part the dark and pompous sounds of the previous tracks are abandoned in favor of twilight tones, which in terms of atmosphere can recall The Gathering. In the second part, the darkness arrives, in a crescendo of darkness and tension. But in the end, the Sun always shines again, and we witness the dawn of a new day, that is, the reprise of the first part.
A masterpiece of Gothic Metal. To all fans of these sounds, I recommend listening to After Forever’s first effort.
Tracklist and Lyrics
03 Semblance of Confusion (04:09)
As the light's becoming more fierce and the heat is melting your heart
The fire is awakening there's an ancient fear we all know
Ominous, misleading, get entangled in yourself
It's a feeling, creeps up, deep within
Sweet taste of innocence forgotten
A semblance of confusion
The strength I need is now flowing away
The choking feeling obstructs everything
So erratic in search for the truth
The pain is strong and persists
Silence was just a diversion to come out on the hard truth again
Leaving this world of illusions seen through the eyes of the innocent
Confronted with the infinity of chaos, forcing you to rearrange
When your litanies are unheard
Phantasm becomes coldly real
There's a thin line between the world of illusion and reality
A purgatoric trip through the mirrors within you
Unconsciousness beholden
Fear to face pass the border of pain, that burning contagion
To break, conquer and find lost beauty
Rinse, the penance is over
I know now where to find the answer
Confronting unconsciousness
04 Black Tomb (06:29)
The storm sings through the mountains
While the rain is falling
A tomb opens itself and lights up the dreary dark valley
The warm spirits fill him, the enchantment of his glory past
Hear his low voice whisper
Feel his powers
Change the light of darkness
His sanctity, his strength
He will rule like before the tomb closed
Tainted souls live again
The sweet vengeance versus the black spirits of evil
Into the light, back into death, now it is time!
It will depend on the righteous or doomed
Like once before opened this tomb, for the revenge is mine
Mother of the found, king of doom
The fane of blackness, fountain of blood
Take those enthroned, their poison inside
Let them crawl till the end of time, die
06 Silence From Afar (05:52)
When the fate leaves you behind
and drags me off to an unknown destination
Shall my tears shape a sea
on which your boat has to reach the area
When the storm is most violent
and the horizon seems to be far away
You will find strength to go on
and conquer the misery that wants to bring you down
When silence from afar is close at hand
our harmony becomes as elusive as time
Viribus exhaustus sentio meum finem
Meam amicam viduam relinquens
07 Inimical Chimera (05:00)
In the imperium with emerald valleys
There where endlessness encircles you
A goddess lost her aureole
Created her own domain
This valley of doom where I'm the token
She'll be throwing the dice this time
A goddess lost her aureole
Evil took over her godless soul
Swallowing you in the rivers of blood
Morbid games played with you, you token
Clouds are roaming around the pale moon
An inimical gloom covers the valleys
I'm the cephalic empress of this doomed celestial empire
Hear the orchestra of death
I wade in blood in search for my inevitable death
The dice are rolling now
08 Tortuous Threnody (06:13)
Thy gruesome cries so thin
On thus you will succeed
The amorphous illusions
Thwart your willingness to believe
The beauty disturbed
The amulet, opener of forgotten doors
Leads back to that doomed tiara-night
See thyself wild in hysteria
Death's irony
The beauty disturbed
Listen to this tortuous threnody
Filled with the pain
Thou can see where betrayal shall bring thee
Death's obligatory
Where all elements melt to one
And odious memories perish together with you
Should have seen the omen, the mirror
Death's reality
Cry, your threnody will be heard
For thy suffocated minds
The tortuous sound as angels' voices
The phobia, in search for ancestral blood
An arable force from the past
Leads back to the atrocious roots
The deep inner soul, never to be exposed
The axiom you can't deny or better
Drags you down into a lost abyss
The hymn stops, fear will reign
Death's cruelty
10 Ephemeral (03:05)
An empty gaze reflects the contradiction
Alleged strength, so fragile
No more than compassion
Ephemeral gatherings without interaction
Be sincere and announce your departure
A vallum of fairy tales smashed into reality
Projected on the ruins of a castle in the air
12 Wings of Illusion (07:27)
Silence breaks in me
Liar
Screams out
Erodes my soul and wakes me up
Silence was my rest
Conjurer
Reality
The odium bursts out in me
It came towards me and made me believe
Made me see
I was the wing, the lie, that shadowed me
Made me blind
To face the time that I am
Hide me from me
Liar
Hide me, the truth has just woke me up...
Has woke me up
It came towards me and made me believe
Made me see
I was the wing, the lie, that shadowed me
Made me blind
To face the time that I am
Hide me, realise, the truth has just began
Hide me, and from my heart
I'll never see my face like before
Hide me from me 'cause of the scorned sins of my soul
Fill these holes with eyes
Mine are not mine
Silent screams pronouncing false prophecies
Hide me from me
Oh, come, come inside of me
Feel the sophisticated tendencies of my thoughts
Unspoken words circling to be thrown into disorder
Leaving a patron of insanity
Carved into stone, not to be forgotten
To collide because of my nakedness
The all embracing frailty I never knew
Evokes a sphere of fallacies
Like a spiral down, down to deep tunnels of despair
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