Forever Hopeful
Is the British metal scene picking up? After reviewing the awesome Interlock, I am presented with another very promising album from a band hailing from within these shores. Although Forever Never's debut album 'Aporia' may not be as inventive or unique as Interlock, it is a superb solid slab of rhythmic metal that would put many of the million selling American bands to shame.
The first impression of 'Aporia' is it's vague similarity in style to Sevendust. The production, and one-note staccato rhythms, is all prevalent on this release, thus linking it heavily with the aforementioned band. This isn't to say Forever Never sound like Sevendust, but both bands use comparable musical tricks to push their metal across. However, the great thing about Forever Never is, in my opinion of course, they play this style of solid rhythmic metal so much better than any of their American contemporaries. Aporia is quite frankly an album that should have took America by storm five years ago; I just pray it's not too late for them.
The bass drum and guitar work are tighter than a miser's money belt, the vocals are aggressive when they need to be, satisfying the metal-core inside my soul, but also melodic enough to able the songs to weave their infectious way into the back of your brain. Because of this, Aporia has the perfect balance of vocal styles. It also doesn't rely on a formula, nor does it always split the singing into growled verse and melodic chorus, and thus is the album's charm. It seems Forever Never have worked hard on getting the mix right, not only on vocals but also on the subtle addition of guitar solos. Although not contained in every song, when the solos do arrive they have double the impact.
One could argue that towards the end of this long player, the tricks Forever Never have at their disposal seem slightly over used, certainly 'Saviour' and 'Drowning' suffer from this problem. These aren't bad songs, quite the contrary, and if put earlier in the track listing wouldn't be mentioned here. Although Aporia isn't strictly the same song written over and over, their reliance on one or two of these tricks gets slightly laborious, but problems such as these can be eradicated with experience. This is the only negative point I can make about this album, it is chock full of solid foot tapping metal, '0707' is a world class dark stomping number, as is 'New Arrival.' Every song has something to commend it, and I think in short bursts only a handful of bands around today could compete with Forever Never. Any fans of Staind, Sevendust, Disturbed should get hold of Aporia right now, not only will you find it full of attitude but also full of melody, grit, and more importantly, good ideas and song-writing.
Biomechanical, Cathedral, Dragonforce, Interlock and Bullet for my Valentine are all flying the flag for British metal, and I think it's safe to add Forever Never to that list. If they were American they'd be huge and selling albums by the busload, but unfortunately for the band they've been born in Essex, not California. Unless a scene can be born with the bands we have, I worry that they, like so many others, will just be ignored, whilst a wagon full of third-rate clone bands clog up the TV/airwaves. Such is life I'm afraid, or more to the point, such is the music business. Top stuff.