Female-fronted metal’s greatest hour – 96%
kluseba, August 7th, 2017
Written based on this version: 2005, CD + DVD, Transmission Records (Special edition, O-Card)
In times of Battle Beast, Beyond the Black and the downfall of Within Temptation, it’s refreshing to look back at one of the very best female-fronted metal records ever released which is After Forever’s Remagine. Apart of the terrible cover artwork, everything is close to perfection here, I usually don’t like the term female-fronted metal but this particular album is so diversified that it can’t simply be categorized as gothic, power or symphonic metal. It takes the best elements of all these genres and much more and unites them to create a stunning masterpiece.
There are several elements that make this release stand out. First of all, it has a consistent diversity and excels in each and every genre. Gloomy gothic metal meets vivid heavy metal riffs. The skilled keyboards bring majestic choirs and elegant orchestrations to life as well as faster power metal influences or a few decently employed electronic elements. The rhythm section knows when to speed up the pace and when to recede into the background to let other instruments or the vocalist shine.
The best ingredient of this exciting potpourri is Floor Jansen however. She delivers her career highlight at the tender age of twenty-four years. Her ReVamp band never really took off, her skills are restricted and underused by Nightwish’s mastermind Tuomas Holopainen and she is only one among many guest singers in projects such as Ayreon, Star One and Timo Tolkki’s Avalon. On this record, Floor Jansen manages to play the fragile and shy beauty, the playful and vivid beast and the powerful rock star all at once. Even though each song is already great instrumentally, each composition seems to be written for her vocal skills only and she manages to elevate these great songs to an excellent level. She even manages to compete with and beat the charismatic and energizing Marco Hietala in the alternative version of “Face Your Demons” which can be seen as a foreshadowing of their future collaborations. Floor Jansen’s vocals keep this creative, diversified and exciting album together and make it stand out.
On this stunning album, calm piano ballads with a fragile touch such as “Strong”, intellectual but never pretentious pieces somewhere between progressive and symphonic elements like “Being Everyone” and modern and powerful anthems in the key of “Boundaries Are Open” make this album an unforgettable rollercoaster ride. The production suits each and every song despite its different stylistic elements. My personal favorite tracks are the dynamic yet mysterious opener “Come” that summarizes the band’s strengths perfectly and the incredibly powerful “Face Your Demons”.
It’s a shame that After Forever didn’t last and only released one more record after this one, the great but at times somewhat overambitious self-titled After Forever. The year 2005 was without a doubt the best regarding metal releases in the new millennium when bands as diversified as In Extremo, Rebellion and The Vision Bleak reached their peaks. Thanks to this release, this year also marks the peak for female-fronted metal records even though Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play two years later is also a respectable contender. I invite younger metal fans to discover this album they might have missed because it has never received the attention it would have deserved. I also invite fans of symphonic power metal to rediscover this forgotten gem to remember how perfect music inspired by this genre among others can actually sound. Finally, I also invite those who never got into female-fronted metal to give this creative, inspired and passionate album a fair chance. This album has marked my teenage years and I hope it will inspire you positively as well.
rafazardly 