AFTER FOREVER — Invisible Circles (review)

AFTER FOREVER — Invisible Circles album cover Album · 2004 · Symphonic Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
bonnek
Hot on the heels of The Gathering, countless countries started assembling female-fronted metal bands. Holland alone already sprouted two big ones Within Temptation and After Forever, which both took the powerful singing style of Anneke Van Giersbergen on The Gathering's Mandylion into operatic and gothic directions.

After Forever started with a very uneven debut, but followed it up with two solid releases of which the third is probably the best and certainly the one with the highest prog-metal cards. The album flows without dips in the songwriting and has enough hooks to make each piece memorable. Floor Jansen is an excellent singer in this style. Her commanding voice is never shrill, her melodies never hesitant or trite. There's also a male grunter, a cliché of the genre and quite annoying here, as he is as inexpressive and tuneless as Floor is passionate and melodious.

A solid album in a style I quickly got tired of, but if you like Epica, Ayreon, Nightwish, Within Temptation or Therion, this album is worth checking out. Although I'd rather recommend you to go for the real thing and try the Gathering's Mandylion and Nightime Birds or the more experimental band Madder Mortem.
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