What is real? What is imagined?
Written: Jan 01 '07 (Updated Oct 12 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Energetic, heavy, interesting
Cons: Lyrics are nothing special; After Forever has done so much better.
The Bottom Line: It's no Decipher and it's certainly no Prison Of Desire, but Remagine is a breath of fresh air nevertheless.
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| blindsider's Full Review: Remagine by After Forever |
My After Forever musical experience has been a really unorganized one.
See, my first real exposure to the band's sound came in the form of their Exordium EP, which was released in 2003 as a "prequel" to the concept album Invisible Circles. I was not interested in it. I came close to banishing away even the slightest morsel of interest in After Forever's music, but I'm so glad I didn't.
After Forever's first two albums, Prison Of Desire and Decipher, featured the extraordinary talented Mark Jansen (who is now in Epica) as a primary songwriter, guitarist and grunter. I found myself simply amazed by listening to those two albums, not only by the astounding quality of music -- I was most amazed by the enormous difference between "old" After Forever and the new After Forever.
But 2005's Remagine, AKA After Forever's most recent release, seems to showcase the band slowly finding their way back to their roots. By no means is this a carbon copy of, say, Prison Of Desire, but it seems to be a return to a heavier, more progressive nature. At the same time, Remagine welcomes a few totally new elements of sound for After Forever. For instance, new keyboardist Joost van den Broek has a unique style that seems to exude a high energy; the depressing, dramatic style has been replaced with one that I can only describe as sounding optimistic. Although Remagine's lyrics aren't constantly cheerful, this is what I'd call a "feel-good" album. For the most part, the songs on here are very fast-paced and easy to get into.
The soft voices of male and female choirs quickly escalate into panicked, frantic chants in the one-minute introduction "Enter," which is the perfect set-up for the first 'real' song, "Come," a whimsical array of lush keyboards, strange sound effects and astonishingly heavy guitars. I should note that the guitar tone in this song reminds me of a lot of songs on Nightwish's Once: the sound is 100% metal, yet there's still this exotic, indescribable groove to the music.
"Boundaries Are Open" has a great chorus full of Floor's multilayered vocals. Her voice sounds strong, not over-the-top, but quite smooth. "Living Shields" is a huge highlight for me. As the rough guitars and double-bass drums sink into the listener's ears, the INSANE choir chants create an absolute frenzy. I can't put into words how much just a few splashes of symphonic-metal influence can turn a song into something really unforgettable.
The slightly creepy "Attendance" is an interesting song for After Forever. It sees the band experimenting with a pensive, industrial rock sound, and while it surprisingly works well enough, I don't imagine that After Forever will be tapping into NIN's fanbase any time soon.
While Remagine's final half has a handful of weak moments, there are a couple notable exceptions that compensate very well. "Strong," a tender ballad written about the illness of Floor's mother, manages to be simple and beautiful without being drowned in cliches. Floor's vocals are just right: very soft with excellent control. "Face Your Demons" is a powerful heavy metal song, through and through. It's full of crunchy guitars, slamming drums, a deafening bass line, and Floor sounding quite like a female version of Bruce Dickinson. Pure insanity.
Remagine is just a fun listening experience. Clearly, I'm much more fond of the darker feel of After Forever's first two albums, but that doesn't stop Remagine from being good in its own way. Many people who want a taste of After Forever may shy away from their earliest releases due to the fact that they're honestly much too dark and much too heavy to be enjoyed by a casual listener of rock/metal, so Remagine might be a nice place for those people to look. Guitarist Sander Gommans does the occasional segue of screaming or roaring, but it's very minimal and not distracting in any way. This is simply metal music with a solid groove to it. Remagine may not be my most loved After Forever release, but somehow it manages to make me smile anyway. I'm sure it'll do the same for most metal fans.
Great Music to Play While: Looking at the album cover and trying to recreate Floor Jansen's interesting hairstyle on yourself.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
blindsider
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 in Music |
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Member: Sheila Doki
Location: Sherman, TX, USA
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Somebody check my brain.
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