Review Summary: More polyrhythmic groove than you can fit into an oversized teaspoon.
Forever Never’s sophomore self titled release shows a more matured writing style, giving listeners a well crafted, highly intelligent and groove based metalcore album.
Aporia, Forever Never’s debut album, showed a lot of promise for this virtually unknown act. It contained its fair share of hooks and some quality tracks but lacked a certain level of experience that could have pushed it to new heights and made it a more memorable listen. It’s easy to see that Forever Never have stepped things up a notch with their self titled release. The hooks are better, their melody and harmony lines are used more decisively and their rhythm section is stronger than ever.
While there are less differences than similarities when this is compared to the debut release
Aporia, the self titled effort shows a better crafted, yet still somewhat cliché lyric sheet.
Forever Never is better balanced between verse and chorus, better balanced between sung and screamed than its predecessor that lift the albums overall diversity levels but maintain that high level of balance. This balance helps maintain the listeners’ interest and allows it to become slightly catchier over time.
Forever Never take influences from a wide variety of genres and artists including the likes of one Michael Jackson. This explains where the pop styled chorus patterns come from. The band has created a very rhythm based album which is highly accessible for fans across a broad range of genres. Aiding that is the smooth production that lifts the interweaving melodies and the clean vocals.
Forever Never is held together by its polyrhythmic and well practiced timing. When comparing album to album it’s easy to see that everything is just that little bit better. Everything from instrumentation to production, this allows for every drum stroke to sound more precise, every chug to be heard distinctly and allows for a stronger vocal performance. This gives Forever Never’s self titled release a better, more rounded sound.
Forever Never has a very consistent approach to their music; they have matured but not changed, show diversity but don’t stray away from their original sound. Their low tuned instruments give an atmosphere that promotes darker content yet; the music does have its positives over-tones, making the album in one form or another, a quiet contradiction. The sound is chunky as guitar bass and drums all work together to beef up that polyrhythmic sound (bass kicks and chugs together). Often times the rhythm section is complimented by a harmony or melody line that adds a warm tone to the music and creates more interest for the listener. These melody lines weave under and around the rhythm work adding a subtle technical feature to tracks that sometimes echo the vocal structures and pitch patterns.
Overall
Forever Never is an excellent follow up to their debut
Aporia. Displaying once again their talent as musicians, Forever Never expands on their original ideas with a matured sound and show hope for more things to come.
Forever Never is a quality record that still allows for more room to grow both in Forever Never’s song writing and musical talent.
Highlights Of The Album:
• Broken Kingdom
• Empty Promises
• Send Me A Sign
• No More Tomorrow
• Eradicated
