After Forever | ‘Exordium’

All these melodious dainty metal bands with chanteuses sound pretty much interchangeable. Unless the musicians are really pulling something magical out of the hat, one may as well be another, and in the case After Forever, there definitely isnt being much pulled out of the hat. Sounding more or less exactly like a mix and match of any of the million or so Nightwish influenced keyboard laden, chorally embellished nonenties doing the rounds at the moment, theres perilous little to set them up as a band on their own terms. Soprano Floor Jansen actually makes a decent enough dig at personality in ‘My Choice’, but is let down by the relative genericism of her bandmates. In fact the best performance on the album is their take on Maiden’s “The Evil that Men Do” in which Jansen acquits herself in above average fashion. It may be only a mini album, but its still too much for me, being so representative of an over saturated genre… the covers are good, but noone wants to buy a cd for that.

2 / 5. -Ciaran Tracey ::: 05/05/04