Customer Reviews

Prison of Desire

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dutch band After Forever hit the ground running with Prison of Desire, the goth/symph/opera/classical/metal CD that shows more promise than a catwalk full of Miss America contestants.

Sure there are a host of bands (mostly in Europe) that adhere to this genre's formula of sporting a gorgeous female lead singer with a voice straight out of heaven...sharply counterpointed by a growling male voice from the pit of hell.

Sins of Thy Beloved, Nightwish, Tristania, Lacuna Coil, Edenbridge, Theater of Tragedy, The Gathering and Within Temptation (among others) all feature stunning female vocals laid against a heavy metal backdrop that make them stand out like diamonds on black velvet.

But, for some reason, no one does it as well as After Forever.

And, in large measure, the reason is because of Floor Jansen, the 20-year-old soprano with a flawless operatic voice that amazes everyone who hears her. There simply isn't another voice out there as clear, pure and compelling. Floor is amazing.

But the rest of the musicians in After Forever are no slouches, either. The guitar playing is first-rate, with solid riffs, hooks and actual creative songwriting talent. The keyboard work is outstanding. And the drumming features everything you'd want to hear in a band of this sort: power and technical mastery.

Although Decipher (the band's second CD) wins first prize in my record collection, Prison of Desire features outstanding tracks as well.

By the way, a friend of mine described After Forever's music this way: "passionate and beautiful and at the same time angry." She also told me her younger sister made this remark after hearing After Forever: "the music sounds like 'two worlds fighting'" because the music is so pretty and would sometimes seem sad and then it would get angry."

I agree with their assessments. This is very passionate, beautiful music -- but with a heaviness (both sonically and lyrically) that keeps it from ever becoming mere fluff.

The only problem I foresee with music this creative and hard to define is finding a market for it. Especially in America. Any country that helps Britney Spears sell a gazillion copies of her latest CD will have a very hard time appreciating Prison of Desire -- even though Floor's vocals totally blow away anything Britney could ever record.

It's too bad, too. After Forever deserves as wide an audience as possible.

Why don't you buy this CD and help give them one?

Much ado has been made about After Forever's potent combination of symphonic black metal, gorgeous soprano vocals, and throaty growling. Guess what? The music IS wonderfully intense, Floor Jansen could sing her grocery list and we'd still be enthralled, and the growling and screaming male vocals... well, more on them later.

In the same sort of vein as Nightwish, Tristania, Sins of Thy Beloved, Within Temptation, and others, After Forever brings us dark, progressive metal complete with symphonic and choral touches. The lead vocalist is arguably one of the best in the business. She's not as operatic as Nightwish's Tarja; rather, she commands a strong, clear, vibrant voice that gives After Forever a beautiful trademark.

I really don't feel like breaking down the relative ratings of each song, so how about a general "feel" from the album? Musically creative, technically advanced, quite beautiful - 'nuff said. Of special interest to Within Temptation fans (like myself) is the track "Beyond Me", where Sharon den Adel adds guest vocals. It's quite a treat to hear these two talented ladies trading lines in this song.

A few words about the so-called "death" or "belly" growling (and here's the part where everyone starts scrambling to press the "This review is NOT helpful" button):

It is terrible. Say all you want about it "adding drama" or "adding to the darkness" or "providing a counterpoint to the ethereal female vocals." Frankly, it's ridiculous and annoying, and it detracts from the beautifully gifted female lead singer.

It's not singing. It's the sound of the Cookie Monster in an extraordinarily bad mood. It's the sound of the world's longest belch, like the type you get after chugging an overly-carbonated beer. It's the sound of gargling, chundering throat juice. It causes me to be mildly concerned that the "singer" is doing himself permanent damage.

Now, I'm not saying that it's easy to do, oh no. I tried to sing along with the opening lines of "Leaden Legacy" and only got through "We cannot beeee... what yooouuu.... expeeeecccct..." before I fell into a fit of violent coughing.

You know what would be great if these types of bands wanted to present a "dark" counterpart to the soprano? If they got someone like Peter Steele of Type O Negative, someone who is capable of singing with a genuine baritone. If someone like that is not available, then I wish they'd take a cue from Within Temptation and lose the male vocals entirely.

It is therefore a strong testament to the pure talent of After Forever that I really like their music. I listen to "Prison of Desire" much the same way someone would eat a tasty-but-outrageously-spicy burrito: you're enjoying every minute of it, even though tears of pain are running down your face.

In conclusion, I strongly urge you to purchase this CD, if you can find it for the right price. It is a rich, symphonic black metal excursion fronted by one of the most talented vocalists in the business today. And it has some grunts and shrieks, but you can tune them out if you try hard enough.

"Prison of Desire" is a terrific debut CD. Probably the best debut in the genre in years! With the astounding vocals of Floor Janssen, the bonecrushing grunts of Sander Gommans and the terrifying screams form Mark Janssen, After Forever have been able to create a great CD. The music can be compared to bands like the Gathering, Within Temptation and Nightwish (one of my personal favorites). A lot of bands sound like this, but only a few bands are able to create a sound like After Forever has done. With magnificent songs like "Beyond me", "Yield to temptation" and "Ephemeral" they should be able to compete with the best in their genre. Especially "Yield to temptation" has got some parts that would make Cradle of Filth proud. Everybody who likes gothic, power and even black metal MUST buy this CD. I can practically garantuee you that it's worth the bucks...

If you are at all a fan of Nightwish, Theater of Tragedy, Dreams of Sanity or Within Temptation, you must get this CD.

Floor Jansen has a powerful voice that flucates between glass shattering and operatic, coupled with some male grunting here and there. Personally, I feel they could have gotten away with less of the deathy vocals, but overall it fits. I like the use of keyboards here; they are fast, yet excellently fit into the melodies and often follow the vocals to strengthen the choruses.

Most of the tracks are pretty heavy, with on occasional ballad-like tune that you don't mind, just because you'll love to hear Floor sing to you some more! I would compare them most closely to Nightwish, although only with the heavier tunes, and NW doesn't contain death vocals. This is power/gothic metal with some excellent melodies thrown in.

This is currently my favorite branch of metal and I am glad there are so many excellent female singers out there. Grab this disc, it won't disappoint you.

If you like gothic metal and are not "repulsed" by some death voices,then you'll love this CD!The female voice is just divine and the music will put you in a trance!

I'm a huge fan of After Forever. They are a very great band. This album is a great album for a debut album of a band! Great. It captivates you from the second you put the cd in your player.

I like the intro and all of the songs. The artwork of the album is also very good.
I love the latin in the album, mixed with gothic/metal sounds, and Floor's amazing and powerful voice, mixed with the grunts!

This is just a masterpiece!!!

11 titles, 11 songs, one feeling: ACE! AWSOME! KWEL! COOL!
This is my opinion of this album, hope it helps you to buy this After Forever album:

1. Mea Culpa (*5*)
Gothic introduction. You can play it as long as you want and you will hear just voices in your head, a dark sound around your mind, and a quiet but softly voice of Floor Jansen.

2. Leaden Legacy (*4*)
Where is the cookie monster? Why's he singing with Floor? Leaden Legacy mixed both voices that confussed you. Some hard moments will take you into an incredible sound of guitar and keyboard. Last minutes are incredibles. It really sounds hard.

3. Semblance of Confusion (*4*)
Guitar with high strings, voices over the normal options, its a Semblance of Confusion. I like this song because you can hear more than 2 bridges to keep you from one sound to another. Well, is not the best of this album, but I really enjoy it.

4. Black Tomb (*5*)
Creeping keyboard. Male voice is freaking me out here. You can compare the guitar as a march to nowhere, maybe to a tomb which is everywhere. Drums are great here. It marks a pause in all the song.

5. Follow in the Cry (*5*)
Egiptian introduction. I don't now why, but this is the song, as the voice of Floor do the same. Double-pedal-drum run at the begining, then it turns gothic. Any influence here? Not really. This is a real original version of After Forever. Hear the last 40 secs of the song. Listen carefuly to Floor voice.

6. Silence from Afar (*3.5*)
Not the best song of this album. Maybe lyric is kewl, but, personally, not the best at all. You can judge me if I am wrong, but I keep 3.5 points here.

7. Inimical Chimera (*5*)
The hard one of this album. Inicimal Chimera is a good song. The begining is really hard. A desperate voice like an insane help in the darknest. Yes, we got a cookie freaky monster voice again. Drums marks all the song here. Guitar song as a bridge in the last minute is amazing.

8. Totuous Threnody (*5*)
Devil and angel. Beauty and the beast. Who knows what can happen with this song after you hear it complete. It keeps me to a real mysterious way. Voices are great here. Slow introduction, but it keeps better as song goes on. Floor has a strong feeling which guides the last minutes. Really, a good one of this album.

9. Yield to Temptation (*4*)
Gothic voices as an introduction. A cookie monster with violins as keyboard plays. Then a guitar which marks the drums sound. Not a good one, except the last minutes because its really hard to play. We tried with my cousin and we couldn't. Try for yourself.

10. Ephemeral (*4*)
A ballad? A soft song? I like this song because is not hard but not soft. You must have to hear the lyric. As part of the first album, it really rocks.

11. Beyond Me (*4*)
Hard one. My friends like this song, but I... not really. I like it because is strong, hard, pure metal, but even don't complete me at all. Voices are good, same as instruments. Is just "in my opinion", do not judge me about it.

Well, I really hope it helps you. After Forever is, like Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil and, NIGHTWISH, one of the metal bands with female voices that really rocks.

After Forever is often lumped in with other metal bands that feature soprano vocals alongside growled male vocals and atmospheric keyboards. However, After Forever differs from Theatre of Tragedy and Tristania precisely in their bewildering array of influences: Therion in the choir sections; Nightwish in the neoclassical synth harmonies; At the Gates in the thrashy death metal riffs (sometimes with blast beats!); My Dying Bride and Within Temptation in the more "gothic" parts... However, these various elements are integrated by a uniform, remarkably clean production that should make this album palatable even to those normally turned off by death metal. Indeed, the soaring soprano vocals are much more upfront in the mix than the male growls and shrieks. Still, After Forever's identity confusion (the best term for this music may be "neoclassical gothic melodic death metal") did distract me at times, and if I were to hear a new A.F. song I'm not sure I could say, "That sounds like After Forever," as they don't really have a unique sound.

But enough of this quibbling. The songwriting is skillful, the instrumentation is diverse and interesting (I particularly like the organ sound produced by the synthesizer), and the lyrics, while vague, tie the songs together thematically (I haven't quite figured out the whole concept yet). If called upon to make quality comparisons, I would say that "Prison of Desire" is better than Tristania's album, Theatre of Tragedy's last two albums, and anything by The Sins of Thy Beloved.

I just recently started listening to After Forever and I just can't understand this cookie monster crap in the songs! Floor Jansen has a beautiful voice, the music is pretty darn good...then the cookie monster destroys the mood! I know some people like growling; but I think it undermines the music, especially Floor's vocals. The last song on the cd 'Beyond Me' has Sharon den Adel as a guest singer. Both women sing beautifully, the song is wonderful, then HE shows up! You could edit 2 mintues out of the song to get rid of the growling and the song would be almost perfect. I would really like to see the band drop the growling and let Floor's voice soar.

I recently discovered After Forever after downloading random stuff on Audiogalaxy, and I found a gold mine!

It's packed with powerful emotions, incredible symphonic integration and Floor Jansen, the female singer, leaves Nightwish, Tristania, Lacuna Coil and many other bands in the dust. No, it's not possible to find a better female singer right now.

The 2nd album, Decipher, is often rated slightly better than this one but Prison is my favorite, Decipher is easier to listen to and sounds more commercial, like Nightwish's latest album Century Child. Prison of Desire also contains more black elements while Decipher is heavily geared towards symphonic.