Forcentury
Vanguard
Rating
Style: Melodic Powermetal
Release date: November 27th 2009
 

Hailing from Copenhagen, these talented guys bring us a musical mix of true heavy metal and power metal combined with melodic hard rock. In the songs we find all kinds of bands by which they could be influenced. Scandinavian acts such as Stratovarius and even Europe in their early years are bands in which they have found inspiration in my opinion. But there is more, every now and then they turn up the tempo and then I find that the band is at it's best.

 

All the songs are packed with very nice melodic guitar solos and the keys see to it that the music sounds very melodic and easy listenable. After the first three up-tempo songs come "Rise of the Machines", a slower and more threatening song and exactly at the right moment because this song catches your attention. It sees to the variation that was needed. The usual ballad  "Love and Honour" is not that strong, John Thunder is a decent power metal singer, but in that song his shortcoming (in comparison with the top power metal singers) appears and he can just not convince me. His voice is just not powerful enough yet and shows it's limitations. But don't get me wrong, he can sing well enough and does quite a good job on the album, but the song itself is medium, not a very strong ballad.

 

Forcentury made a nice debut-album, which could have sounded a bit more crunchier and heavier in my opinion. The songs sometimes sound a little bit too sweet, but perhaps that's what the band wants, so that's my personal problem. In the info with the promo they also write that there are some thrash influences as well, but I didn't hear that. Just plain Scandinavian melodic powermetal.


Tracklist

01. Land of Mirrors

02. Through the Eyes of Thunder

03. Speculator

04. Rise of the Machines

05. Bottom Line Zombies

06. Valhalla's Call

07. Love and Honour

08. Son of Poseidon

09. The Abyss

Label: Independent
Distribution: www.metalrevelation.com
Provided by: Metal Revelation
Reviewed by:

Reinier de Vries

Date: December 27th 2009
Website: www.myspace.com/forcentury