Review Summary: A promising debut for a young metalcore band.
Another metalcore band, another metalcore album. It's a genre that has been saturated over the past few years and it is becoming a task just to stand out before even writing good metalcore; but Forevermore may have achieved it. With ages ranging from 17 to 18, for such a young group of guys, 'Moths And Rust' is a very impressive and promising debut album.
From the opening track 'Moths And Rust' you can tell this album will be an exciting listen with many pleasant surprises. The opening riff with the opening scream and breakdown all produce positive thoughts.
With a lot of metalcore bands seem to be doing the chug-chug riffs which can get tiresome and unoriginal yet
Forevermore's riffs are far from it. Beautifully melodic riffs with a crisp yet harsh tone gives the guitarwork a very well deserved thumbs up.
The stand out track, 'It's Been A Pleasure' opens with a breakdown that reminds you off 'Texas In July's album, 'I Am' for all the right reasons, but what differentitates them from 'I Am' is the vocalist adds cleans to his arsenal. His harsh vocals are impressive with a wide range used and his clean vocals are equally impressive yet seem to miss a sense of purpose and seem to be there only to mix it up on the vocal front without any added depth of character or emotion.
Instrumentally the drumming is simple yet solid and is a great backbone to all the songs, the bass is actually audible which a pleasant surprise as most metalcore/deathcore albums have the bass near to inaudible. The guitarwork is definitely the highlight, with moments such as 2.04 onwards on 'It's Been A Pleasure'. It shows the guitarists skill with magnificently melodic pieces which is then abruptly halted by a crushing yet catchy breakdown.
A downside is that you could say most songs are similar sounding and have a similar formula too them yet it is done well and for a such a young band only a positive future can be seen. Looking into more tracks a commonly used instrumental is used in 'Caesura' and follows the type of guitar Forevermore will be known for, melody. At only 1.28 it is a very peaceful, innocent song with no drums or bass and just two guitars echoing each other. The addition of violin's, viola's and cello's bring a lot of character to a simply beautiful instrumental.
With the album being 35.19 minutes and having 10 tracks with one instrumental it is a fairly short album but that is nothing to be taken away from what is a brilliant debut metalcore attempt. The production one of the best I personally have heard with all the instruments at the perfect volume with the vocals being over the instruments at just the right amount.
