The Dutch band After Forever's first 2 cds were good, not enough to really grab me, but the band certainly had something. A bit heavier and more goth than the other metal bands with female singers like "Nightwish", "Within Temptation" or "Edenbridge". Especially the very strong voice of
Floor Jansen was a big asset for the band. So when I found out they had a new cd out, I decided to check it out.
The new album
Invisible Circles is a concept cd with a story evolving about a young girl growing up. She is the product of ambitious career parents who don't have any love for their child.
We follow her as she has to face the hard life in school without any support from home. Finally she grows up and suddenly sees that she herself is continueing the lifestyle of her parents, the only lifestyle that she knows. This is where the title comes in, the idea that we are trapped in invisible circles. So the message here is that we can step out of the circles that hold us as prisoners. I like the concept and the lyrics are ok too.
But it's in the music that the real value is.
After Forever have composition-wise made a giant leap since their last work. The songs stand out as well-composed and the whole cd seems like a whole. On their previous cds their compositions showed that this was a young band, still playing around, finding their own style, sometimes with results that were interesting but still a bit immature.
Well,
After Forever have matured, I can tell you. This time around, they have found their musical focus.
The music is built around the beautiful voice of singer
Floor Jansen. She sings with a very powerful voice that fits very well with a metal band. She does not have the innocent, girl-like voice that is sometimes heard in metal, she sings with a power and an energy that I've never heard before. Depending on the song, she varies between different voices during the album. Often when she sings the parts of the mother, she will use an operatic style. This is often during the heavier parts and it all just adds up and gives the music so much energy, the energy that is what I love so much in metal. At times she is the young innoncent girl, who with nothing but a piano to back her up, sings of a world that doesn't understand her. But most of the time she uses what I see as her "own" voice. The strong voice that I connect with when I saw them live in Wacken: A beautiful and strong woman who headbangs with the guys, yet with a feminity that stands out. (Yeah sorry , I'm a guy and she
is very beautiful).
On
Invisible Circles we have three different singers,
Floor Jansen,
Sander Gomans and
Bas Maas. As on the previous albums, guitarist Sander delivers the grunts and growls. I realize that not everyone likes the
cookie-monster vocals, but the intensity, the brutality and the anger is so well expressed with a growl and I see no other way of expressing these feelings. Rest assured that the focus is on Floor's voice most of the time but for anyone wanting to get into more extreme music, this could be a good place to start. The beauty of the music could first let you accept the growls and then later come to understand and love them.
Third singer is the other guitarist Bas who sings a few parts with a clean voice. I have heard better singers but the duets with Floor and his other parts give his voice a well-deserved right to be there.
The cd is very well-produced, all vocals and instruments stand out. Bass and drums can clearly be heard, even in the faster parts with the double bass drums and the guitar walls. The one thing that is less-than-perfect is the guitar sound. I have no idea why they chose to make it so digital-sounding. I refuse to believe that they got this sound from a good tube guitaramplifier with a microphone recording from the speaker. I could imagine that they just plugged the guitaramps directly into the mixing board. The sound is not bad and you get used to it, the nice and tight guitar work keeps it interesting but the
sound???
Well, it certainly is different...
Now we get to my main complaints of the album. To emphasize the story,
After Forever have hired some actors to act out the tensions between the parents. So in track three,
Betweeen Love and Fire from 3:14 to 3:55 and track eight,
Blind Pain from 4:45 to the end of the song which lasts until 6:47, we have the parents arguing without any music behind them. Yes, that's right, this is 41 seconds of dialogue in the first song and 2 minutes and 2 seconds in the second. At least in the second one you can skip to the next song since the dialogue is in the end of the song but not so in the first one. Here you have to fast forward until 3:55 to hear the end of the (otherwise very good) song. This is truly unforgivable! Ok, now you are probably asking "is it that bad, why not just listen to it?".
Well, the actors are not really that bad but it's get UNBELIEVABLY IRRITATING when you hear them fighting for the 57. time! So just remember the time 3:55 'cause you are going to fast forward to this point again and again in track 3 and get ready to skip to the next song when you hear them start talking in track 8. I'm seriously considering editing thos two tracks and burning my own version...
Sorry about the ranting above but it just irritates me. Anyways, apart from the above few points, the album is very catchy, the music will grab you from the first listen and soon you will be singing along with lines such as: "So here I am, and I am beautiful/ And all my friends would say the same/ so here I am, and you cannot deny/ That I'm someone you'd embrace/ I am the queen, I'm pure and loved by everyone" from
Digital Deceit, well... I mean sing along in a very manly way and probably skip the queen-part... yeah, right, that's it...
I have chosen to rate this cd with and 8. I would have rated it higher, had it not been for those narration parts. Sorry, but I cannot give an album more than 8 if I have to fast forward through parts on it. That's just not possible. But the rest of the album is just pure genius. It has occupied my cd player most of the time the last few months and is truly one of the gems between so many average cds.
Written by
Tajs Monday, November 8, 2004
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