After Forever - Remagine

At this point in their career, After Forever was already sharing the same status as other Dutch symphonic metal masters including Within Temptation and Epica. All of the albums After Forever had released before Remagine had been fairly consistent, which meant that this was now a time for them to dust off the bar and raise it a level or two. The band knew that and promised to release an album unlike anything they had ever done before; in both sound and quality. Writing an outstanding symphonic metal album seems to be pretty damn hard, because there doesn’t really seem to be many out there. Well, maybe I should rephrase that by saying that there aren’t that many bands that have the skill, creativity, and overall ability to write a fantastic symphonic metal album. But, although that may be true, the symphonic metal albums that ARE fantastic really are fucking fantastic (I’m having trouble coming up with words that can describe the ultimate beauty of some of the symphonic metal albums out there). Even though plenty of people would beg to differ on this, I believe that After Forever still had yet to put out a really good album, that is, until Remagine.

Symphonic metal, to my understanding, is a blend of power metal and gothic metal, putting some extra emphasis on the symphonic and orchestral elements (hence giving it the name symphonic metal). Despite the fact that After Forever is and always have been a symphonic metal band, Remagine seems to be the least “symphonic” record out of their discography. I guess this is what they meant by “unlike anything they had done before”. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but it makes sense. The thing that’s different about Remagine is that it uses a lot more synthesizers. Yes, it still uses keyboards for all the orchestral sounds and that sort of shit, but there are a lot more semi-generic electric synthesizer voices being used that would most commonly be heard in gothic metal and melodic death (Scar Symmetry, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, and Children of Bodom are melodic death bands that use a lot of that kind of keyboard stuff). This fact that Remagine puts less emphasis on the symphonic elements kind of upset some of the metalhead community, but this is where the surprises that After Forever unleash in this album come into play.

This is easily noticeable right after the intro track flows into the first song off the album, Come. Floor Jansen has a naturally operatic singing voice, so when she sings in a normal tone, it’s extremely powerful. That’s why when I heard the chorus of Discord from their self-titled album, the powerful singing just won me over. But, unlike their legendary self-titled record, the vocals on Remagine tend to be inconsistent. There are several bits where Jansen seems somewhat uninspired. The fortunate thing is that the other guys in the band seem to know this, because the intensity of the music goes higher during the parts where Jansen’s singing feels bland as well as during instrumentals.

As well as that, the complexity of the music tends to go down as Floor’s vocals break out into full operatic mode. Although I understand the whole balance thing, the way that it’s done on Remagine doesn’t sound very good. The whole point of this genre is intensity; especially during the climaxes where the music, the symphonics, and the vocals are at their highest point which creates the feeling that everything around you is going to explode into some Narnia-like world all around you. That’s the reason I love Epica so much. Yes, I know that there are some symphonic metal bands that don’t have that as their main goal. Some bands like to have more of a baroque/classical/more sophisticated sound, like a lot of the stuff that Therion has put out (especially my favorite album by them, Sitra Ahra). The reason why this bothers me on THIS album is because After Forever deliver everything perfectly, create a flawless build-up, and seem to just...fall through the ground. I’m hearing this huge build-up and thinking “oh man here comes the chorus!” and expecting something spectacular, only to be met with an end result with only half of the intensity that the build-up created. Don’t get me wrong, everything on this record is beautiful; the melodies, everything. It’s just that it’s missing the energy.

An example would be the chorus on Come. You get a nice catchy build-up that leads into a BEAUTIFUL, but somewhat phlegmatic chorus. Despite these drawbacks, After Forever produces a fabulous piece of work that can easily be considered one of the best records of their career. I would highly recommend this to any symphonic metal and gothic metal fans. As well as that, even people that are into progressive rock and gothic music in general might find this an enjoyable listen. I would give After Forever’s Remagine a score of 16/20.

Onatra - For Your Soul [EP]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard very many (if any) horrible symphonic metal records. The interesting thing is…this is one of my favorite types of music, and one of my FAVORITE bands is from this particular genre, Epica. Yet I don’t know of a whole lot of symphonic metal bands. Over the course of maybe two months, I discovered almost all of the symphonic metal bands I listen to today: Nightwish, Epica, Therion, After Forever, Edenbridge, Within Temptation, and Apocalyptica. The only other symphonic metal bands that I’ve discovered since then are newer groups like ReVamp, Whyzdom, and Tarja. All of these symphonic metal bands are AMAZING and each have a special place in my collection, but I’ve been curious to find some brand new symphonic metal acts out there to impress me. Onatra is the band I’m going to tell you about today. Earlier this year, Onatra released a three song EP that is apparently available to the public for free, which most likely means that this is being used as a teaser to get the community hyped up and excited for a debut full-length. This EP isn’t an outright perfect record; it is, though, EXACTLY what I wanted to hear.

This EP is more than good enough to keep my eye on Onatra for when they release their debut album. But because it’s not AMAZING, it leaves a whole lot of room for improvement to make the upcoming first album seem so much better. Honestly, most of the flaws that this record has aren’t in the music itself; the majority of the flaws lie in the production work. This album is better produced than most self-released EPs I’ve heard, but there are several things about it that make a lot of the elements seem unbalanced and make the music much harder to flow smoothly. Probably the biggest issue that I have is the drums. In this kind of music, the drums NEED to be at the front of the line; if the drums have no volume and punch, the music has no power. If you listen to songs like See Who I Am by Within Temptation or Discord by After Forever, it’s easy to hear that the drums have parts where they’re more in the background, but most of the time they almost completely stick out and rise above the rest of the band. I know that the drums aren’t the ONLY thing that give this kind of music its power, but it certainly is the absolute biggest contributor.

The first track of this EP has a fantastic intro! But the reason why it has next to no power is because the drums have next to no punch. Once again, there isn’t much that can be done musically to help this (except for the use of more cymbals in the tighter parts to make them more powerful). That’s the one single thing that’s almost completely holding back the music, MORE DRUMS! The drums need to be LOUDER and have more damn POWER! Although I have a generally easy time seeing through this and seeing the mass amounts of musical creativity and potential, it does act as a huge obstruction. But don’t let that turn you away, because in the middle of the first track…a guitar solo erupts seemingly out of nowhere to pierce the skies like a rising phoenix. This is one of the better solos I’ve heard in this kind of music in a LONG time. After that solo grabbed my attention and almost pulled me in completely, the song then exploded with power that apparently was there the whole time; I guess it was the guitar solo that did to me what the intro SHOULD have done. That’s the big thing with this type of music, the attention grab of the intro needs to be almost INSTANT, or it will make the music seem dull until something interesting happens (that is, IF something interesting happens).

The second track is a fantastic headbanging song and has most of the grab in the beginning that the first song was missing…but the drums could still use to have more volume and power. The singer is obviously going to be the highlight among audiences once this band REALLY takes off (just like in almost every other symphonic metal band). If you’re curious about how she sounds, she perfectly nails the operatic singing style, but it doesn’t fit the powerless sound of the rest of the music. Another thing that this album is missing: the guitars need more crunch. And by that I mean a much heavier distortion.

Overall, this is actually a fantastic EP, but the numerous production flaws limit the music a lot. This EP shows that this band has talent, skill, and creativity. It also shows that there is plenty of room for improvement that they can fill by the time they release their first full-length album. I would give this 15/20. 

Epica - Requiem for the Indifferent

When I heard that Epica was going to be releasing a new album, the ultimate excitement I felt at that moment is indescribable. Epica is another one of those bands where each album is better than the one before, just like Soilwork, After Forever, DevilDriver, All Shall Perish, Katatonia, and Eternal Tears of Sorrow. Although not the most commercially successful, Epica has proved themselves to me (and millions of other people) that they are truly one of the (if not THE) most talented and creative symphonic metal bands of all-time. But even though that’s just a matter of opinion, anyone who is into the female-fronted symphonic metal scene can easily say that Epica holds an incredible amount of talented musicianship. In the symphonic metal area, the most BITCHED ABOUT topic is definitely who is the best singer. Some of the singers that would definitely be nominees in my book would be Tarja Turunen, Floor Jansen, and Anette Olzon. But honestly, none of them even come close to matching the paralyzing voice of Simone Simons (I’m just saying that to put my opinion out there, I’m not a music elitist). I have always loved Design your Universe, and on December 2^nd of 2010, I was convinced that Epica couldn’t POSSIBLY get ANY better when I saw them perform live with Scar Symmetry, Blackguard, and The Agonist.

Requiem for the Indifferent butchered that thought. I’m not exaggerating at all; Epica actually got better. But the sound of Requiem for the Indifferent is far from being similar to the sound of Design your Universe. This new album made me realize that Design your Universe is actually one of their softer albums. The reason why is because Requiem for the Indifferent takes a huge step in the death metal direction; that’s right folks, DEATH METAL! But, like every other Epica album, Requiem for the Indifferent has its fair share of ballads that cause people (including me) to shed tears with its sheer beauty and immensely powerful emotion. The song that originally got me officially HOOKED on Epica was Tides of Time (still one of my ALL-TIME favorite songs). Epica failed to disappoint me with their slightly gospel-influenced ballad, Delirium. I’m pretty sure a lot of you are asking, WHERES THE HEAVY SHIT??

The answer to that question lies in the first two tracks. These tracks are very similar to the first two tracks on The Divine Conspiracy. By that, I mean that it has the soft intro track filled with complex choir chords that suck you in like a black hole into a FAST and FUCKING HEAVY track. The only difference is that the heavy track on Requiem for the Indifferent is FAR, FAR heavier than the one off The Design Conspiracy. After the second song, you’re met with the ballad I was talking about earlier. After that, Internal Warfare relentlessly pounds you into the dirt; listening to the song should be enough to prove that statement. I guess the majority of the album’s material is made up of these merciless and heavy songs that Epica has been known to only use sparingly…until now.

Honestly, the musicians haven’t gotten any better. The reason why is because they pretty much reached capacity almost four years ago!! But that never means that it’s impossible to even further push the limits. The guitarist that also does the growls (Epica refers to them as “grunts”) and some mediocre screams improved his vocals a lot since the previous album. His growls don’t sound as weak and…I don’t know…there’s something about his growls in the previous albums…something about them that’s missing or lacking something…I’ve just never been able to put my finger on it. But whatever his vocals were lacking before was fixed; he could easily be a good fit for the next big melodic death band. And on top of that, his screams are A LOT better than before. Also, of course, Simone’s singing voice continues to go uphill while showing no signs of slowing down EVER.

This is definitely Epica’s best album without a doubt. But remember, this is the heaviest record they’ve ever put out, so it’s hard to ultimately compare it to their other material due to the near-dramatic change in overall musical style they’ve taken. When I listen to this record, I shake my head in disbelief that they actually created a record better than Design your Universe. This is an INSTANT classic and shouldn’t be missed by anyone, symphonic metal fan or not. I would give this a perfect score on any scale. 5/5, 10/10, 20/20, 100/100, 100%, A+, whatever scale you would prefer to use (I usually go out of 20), I guarantee you that I will give it full credit. I’m so glad that I pre-ordered this CD (which came with a shirt). 

Nightwish - Imaginaerum

When Nightwish fired their vocalist, Tarja Turunen, there was a complete outrage amongst the metal community. Although I understand completely why they would fire an over-egotistical sexy female vocalist, her voice was most of what made Nightwish’s music so amazing. Now even though I discovered Nightwish after they had released Dark Passion Play, the first album I heard by them was their 2004 masterpiece Once which was the last Nightwish album that Tarja appeared on. I was amazed by Once, and set out to find some of their other material, but the only albums I could find at the library (which was where I got a lot of my music at the time) were Century Child and Dark Passion Play. Yet again, I loved both of those albums. So now that I have been listening to Nightwish for almost five years, I’ve become extremely familiar with their music as well as their history. And here comes their long-awaited 2011 album, Anette’s chance to prove that she truly belongs in Nightwish; to prove that Dark Passion Play wasn’t just a fluke. Turns out that it wasn’t a fluke.

I’m going to start off with a topic that I bet a lot of you love getting involved in. Who is better: Anette or Tarja? Tarja is a classically trained singer, so her vocals tend to have a more operatic sound most of the time which is what causes the utter beauty and musicality of her voice. She also has a very unique sound and a wide vocal range. Anette’s vocals aren’t operatic at all. She has more of a traditional singing style; but she still is very well in-tune and has a beautiful crisp sound. Also, Anette’s harmonizations are very clean with a little bit of an edge which is helped with a wide vocal range that mainly goes to the higher ranges. Notice that I did nothing but list the qualities and traits of the two singers; I didn’t say either one was better than the other. Here’s something that you might not have noticed before: the entire band’s music from when Tarja was singing is a lot different than the music that backs up Anette.

In all of the albums before Dark Passion Play, the guitars were very loud and had an extremely dirty and crunchy distortion that sometimes even overpowered the rest of the band (like in the song Nemo). The music was faster and more aggressive and the music was also filled with lots of powerful sounds that come from an orchestra. Tarja’s powerful operatic vocals fit the music perfectly therefore making her the only vocalist able to sing along with the older songs and still have the music sound amazing.

In Dark Passion Play, the guitars still have a deep growl sound, but it’s a much much cleaner distortion. On top of that, the guitars are turned down a great deal to balance out the rest of the music. The music isn’t as fast, and has less of an aggressive sound; but still has an unbelievably amount of power that it puts out. The songs have a more traditional radio-friendly structure (not necessarily a bad thing) but still have a good length. The operatic instruments (played on the keyboards by Captain Jack Sparrow) are turned down a great deal, focusing more on the atmosphere that the music creates rather than complicated orchestral arrangements to back up the music. The only vocalist that can sound good with this album is Anette with her crisp, high-pitched (but still powerful) voice.

What I’m trying to get at is that ever since Wishmaster, Nightwish has always sounded good, even though they have been going through several major and minor shifts in their musical style. So neither vocalist is better than the other because they’re both amazing; just amazing in two different ways.

So the writing process of the new album was delayed by resting needs of the band members and Anette’s pregnancy. So the writing process of Imaginaerum started in late 2010 and was finished fairly quickly. Unlike their previous album, Nightwish didn’t make constant updates on their website about how the production and such of the new record was going; they stayed pretty low for the majority of the process, probably still pretty exhausted from all the media attention following Tarja’s departure. I’m still confused about what record label they’re on because on Spirit of Metal it says that almost all of their albums were released purely under Nuclear Blast, but when I looked on the Nuclear Blast website, it said that Nightwish was a “former” artist and that they were on Century Media (Nuclear Blast’s lesser partner). But then I saw under Nuclear Blast that they were releasing Imaginaerum so I don’t know it’s too confusing to even bother with it.

Nightwish uses Imaginaerum as an experimental album because they had been playing the same general sound for about eight years, making several minor changes in their sound in 2007. But they still needed to show that they could still be inventive and come up with something new. Imaginaerum is what they used to explore different musical realms. Throughout the record you hear other genres and elements being toyed with like folk, jazz, acoustic rock, alternative, new age, and even some screaming being done by both Anette and Marco. For those of you that are thinking “SCREAMING?? You can’t be serious!” Look up the song Ghost River. You also hear a lot more of Marco’s voice than in any of the other previous albums (probably because of Tarja’s ego and huge need to be the center of the music).

If you are a music fan at all, you should already know that there are a few songs out there that put a big huge smile on your face and give you butterflies no matter how many times you listen to it. You should also know that these particular specialties are extremely rare. Nightwish has already come out with two songs that create that kind of emotion in me and those songs are Dark Chest of Wonders and Amaranth. Well, let me tell you that there is one song on Imaginaerum that yet again creates that emotion, that song is the one that has a strong folk metal-induced sound, I Want my Tears Back. When you listen to this song, the crunchy guitars at the beginning take you back to the “Tarja Era” to then be sucked into a familiar form of vocal harmonization being done by the female and Marco that was in I Wish I had an Angel. After that you are immediately pulled into a melodic power metal sound surrounded and empowered by the sounds of bagpipes and flutes.

There is one song that was a major disappointment for me and that is the ballad that comes right before I Want my Tears Back. The song is beautiful, but the drummer completely ruined it. In this song the drummer uses those metal brushes on the symbols and snare, and he’s completely lost and out of time. It just completely ruined it to the point where I just skipped to the next song. Other than that, this album is a masterpiece that deserves much credit. Being a true album of creativity and experimentation, Imaginaerum gets 19/20. 

I also want to show you what the full picture on the album cover looks like: 

http://www.nightwish.com/images/news/imaginaerum_panorama-web.jpg

ReVamp-ReVamp

When After Forever disbanded in February, 2009, singer Floor Jansen claimed that she would take this opportunity and form a new band. She said in an interview that she wanted this band to have a sound that was more fitting to the lyrics she wrote, because she felt that in After Forever, quite a few of the songs (soundwise) didn’t fit the lyrics she had written. ReVamp has the keyboardist from After Forever, and a few other musicians that have worked with Floor in the past. Many reviewers have claimed that ReVamp sounds no different than After Forever, which isn’t really a good thing. Others have said that Floor’s voice isn’t nearly as good as before, and that the songs are not creative and that the overall sound is mediocre. But then again, there is the crowd (which includes me) that enjoys ReVamp very much.

ReVamp’s overall sound is much heavier and darker than After Forever. The Dutch band has really pushed symphonic metal into a whole new realm. It sounds like they have mixed in some metalcore in with their sound, causing the more technical sounding guitar parts and drumming, as well as the sound of the guitar distortion. Floor’s voice has changed quite a bit, being slightly deeper, and having more of an edgy sound. The bassist in my opinion is the best musician in the band. He plays most of the songs with a five string bass, but in an interview he said that he played a couple of the songs using a six string bass (not stating what the songs were). The member who does the growling is not very good at it. I feel he should practice and work on it more so that he can develop his own unique vocal sound (like every good metal vocalist does). The band isn’t quite as tight as After Forever was. I feel that the band was put together very fast and came out with an album too soon. It would have been better if they took more time in perfecting their songs and practicing more times, as well as more thoroughly.

In this review, I will only talk about the song that is split into three very different parts. Part one uses a lot of symphonic and orchestral instruments, as well as a piano playing in the background throughout the part. The song has a very heavy sound with an exquisite combination of melodic melodies and dark, crunchy bass lines. I also think that the pianist did a fabulous job on his part, having a very technical classical sound. Part two is fast, dark, angry, and mean. That is mostly due to the fact that it features legendary vocalist Bjorn “Speed” Strid from Soilwork. The song is very technical, very fast, and it has a thrash metal feeling during some parts of the song, and has melodic death sounds in it as well. I would have liked it if Floor had worked on being more in tune on her singing in part two. Part three is my favorite part of In Sickness ‘Till Death Do Us, as well as being my favorite song off of the album. Mainly because it has an awesome beat, and that it has one of the most beautiful choruses I’ve ever heard in symphonic metal. They were very creative in the solos, the chorus is beautiful, changing keys almost every time the chorus is played, the overall sound of the song is very catchy, and you can tell that the band put a lot of effort into this part of the song. This is an excellent debut release and deserves a solid 17/20.

After Forever-After Forever

The self-titled album by metal superstars, After Forever, is their absolute best album by far. The sad thing is, is that it turned out to be their last, as well as their best. In January 2008, After Forever announced on their website that the band would be taking a break of at least a year, mainly to assess the health problems of vocalist and guitarist Sander Gommans, who had been absent during most of the tour supporting their self-titled album. In an interview with Ragnarök radio, Floor Jansen said the band would get together early 2009 to discuss After Forever's future. On February 5th 2009, After Forever announced that they decided to call it quits. The long break, during 2008 and 2009, had made them realize that they did not feel the passion towards the band any longer.

This album has already been prophesized to be remembered always and to be a landmark in metal history. Floor’s voice is definitely one of the most beautiful and powerful voices I have ever heard. No, this band is not “just another symphonic metal band that sounds like every other one”. After Forever are true masters of metal and will always be remembered. They are extremely tight, creative, and beautiful. This seems to be the first album where their male vocalist doesn’t sing at all, just growling. On top of that, the band’s overall sound has a lot less of a gothic sound than in all of their other albums. When I first got this album over a year ago, I remember listening to it over and over again endless times. The distortion of the guitar is very powerful, but a very clean distortion. I think it’s a coincidence that this album turned out to be their last because the album cover has the omega symbol, which is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. But the music is the best part.

Discord is my absolute favorite song off this masterpiece of an album. The song starts with orchestral instruments, but it sounds like an old 30’s or 40’s recording. Then, the guitars come on with a very powerful sound. It’s amazing. There is a lot of emotion in the music, especially in the singing at the chorus. Evoke starts with Floor singing with an opera voice. The song has quite a bit of a darker sound at parts. The keyboard really stands out in Transistory. There’s great growling, an awesome chorus, and really cool, unusual harmonies. Energize Me is the hit single off the album, as well as having a music video. There is plenty of emotion and creativity in that song. Equally Destructive is one of the heavier songs, having crunchy guitar sounds at parts. Withering Time has a lot of choir vocals with some amazing music that matches it perfectly. De-Energized has a very heavy and angry sound with some astonishing guitar riffs and lots of growling. Cry with a Smile is a softer song, with very pretty vocals and overall sound. Envision is very unique, especially with its creative drumming. Who I Am is another heavy song, with great keyboard parts that really stand out. Dreamflight is the only song that has male singing in it. It is also the longest song, being over 11 minutes long, as well as that, the keyboardist really has one of the main parts in this song. Empty Memories is mostly made up of orchestral and symphonic music, having very few guitars. The last track, Lonely, is just beautiful piano and astonishingly pretty singing from Floor.

Overall, I can’t really see how this album could get better in any area, it’s perfection. Every song I just talked about on this review is purely amazing and should be heard by everyone. I still can’t believe that after this masterpiece, they lost interest, it’s disappointing. If you have never heard of this band, and find this review and album appealing, don’t hesitate to buy it, I promise you, you won’t regret it. This album is outstanding and deserves a 100% on any scale.