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On disc: Symphorce



Sinctuary - Claudia Ehrhardt - 8 stars
PhorcefulAhead - Claudia Ehrhardt - 7 stars
Twice Second - Alex Albrecht - 9 stars
Unrestricted - Umberto Mino - 8 stars


www.symphorce.net







Unrestricted

Unrestricted
(AFM Records - 2010)


After three years from Become Death, Andy B. Franck and his Symphorce guys are back with another album called Unrestricted, another chapter full of melodic / modern metal songs!!! And also this time their formula just reach immediately our brains with their nice choruses and melodies. This new Unrestricted album shows us how Symphorce change but how they remain the same, a strange concept to explain, but for every fan it's easy to understand!!!
Unrestricted starts with The Eternal, a very emotional song from its piano intro and the follower Until It's Over shows one more time the Symphorce's best weapon: a great chorus in a mid-tempo song!! Simply irresistible!!! Sorrow In Our Hearts is another mid-tempo song, a little bit 'darker', but always nice for my ears!!! Whatever Hurts and The Waking Hour are the 'soft' side of Symphorce, songs very easy to love because of their catchy chorus and good guitar riffs!!! Visions and The Last Decision offer two different sides of Symphorce, light and dark, happiness and rage and both songs deserve to be listened!!! The Mindless is another nice song, where melodies and chorus are a lethal mix, World Seems To Collide and Do You Ever Wonder are the best choice to close this album in an excellent way!!!
Also this time we can appreciate the fact that Symphorce has done another good album, we still wait for a masterpiece, guys, because you have talent for doing that!!!


8 stars

Umberto Mino
 

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Twice Second

Twice Second
(Metal Blade - 2004)


This is the 4th album of the band from Southern Germany. Last year they offered Phorcefulahead which already showed the potential of this quintet very well. Now they are back with Twice Second. Between the 2 Symphorce albums singer Andy B. Franck recorded and released Soul Temptation with his second band Brainstorm. It's obvious that he's one of the best German power metal singers and it seems that he's creativity is unlimited. Again the band with Freedom Call guitarist Cedric Dupont - okay, he was in Symphorce before he joined Freedom Call - present a great power metal album with some thrash influences. The production is very powerful and so the songs hit you straight, listen to e.g. Face Of Pain and Whatever Hate Provides. The songs cover a broad variety and especially singer Andy shows what range his vocal chords can cover. The guitar-driven Cause Of Laughter and the dark, atmospheric, almost morbid refrain of Take What's Mine are some of the highlights. Well, all songs are excellent. Just killers! Even the last track - the epic ballad Cry On My Shoulder - is convincing.
I can recommend this album to all fans of power metal bands like Brainstorm, Vicious Rumors (in their better days), Angel Dust, early Nevermore and also fans of Anthrax at times of Sound Of White Noise will enjoy this album. I think that they are still underrated and I hope this will change with this album!


9 stars

Alex Albrecht
(translation: Claudia Ehrhardt)
 

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PhorcefulAhead<

PhorcefulAhead<
(Metal Blade - 2002)


This is the 3rd release of the melodic power metal band of singer Andy B. Frank. The former Ivanhoe singer is busy with Brainstorm, but still finds time to continue with Symphorce. Opening with Speak My Mind, a mid-tempo tune starting off with only guitars. But after almost a minute is become a heavy rocker. Very groovy and very heavy. Heavier then I remember them... A dark atmosphere is added by Andy's vocals, but it gets more melodic metal with the bridge / refrain. A song which gives a good impression of Symphorce anno 2002. The following Unbroken is more up-tempo and straight ahead - musically closer to Brainstorm then the opener. With Longing Home they start a bit more traditional... A heavy metal vibe, but with more powerful parts and also some slower parts - here almost hard rock-like and focussed on Franck's voice. This track covers everything from heavy rock to power metal, but very well done. Only the twin guitar solo isn't keeping up the good impression.... A fast double bass drum-based track is Moving In Circles which probably is a good example for the faster side of Symphorce. Even if I think that the mid-tempo tunes like Falling Through Again are more interesting, but here they use tempi changes to flee the uniformity. This also gives frontman Andy B. Franck more space to express emotions. Beside that the mid-tempo ones are still very heavy. The track Rage Of Violence is another one I can recommend to check out, here they present all the elements of their sound.
The digi-pack has 3 bonus tracks, all demo recordings which been done during the process of writing / pre-production of this album. You can hear the band talking in the background, joking. Give an impression about how they work. Sound-wise these tracks can't keep up with the album, but it's just demos! It's interesting for fans anyway.
Mainly the guitar soli are something I tend to criticize, but that's a matter of taste. Beside that - in my opinion - it lacks a real killer track, something which haunts you for days when you heard it first. Some albums grow after a few spins, but I couldn't detect that so far.... Technically they are very good, but for me they are too much like other genre bands, only Andy's vocals stick out.


7 stars

Claudia Ehrhardt
 

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Sinctuary

Sinctuary
(Noise Records - 2000)


There debut was called Truth To Promise and the critics gave good notes... Now Andy B. Franck and his friends are back with Sinctuary! The new album is better! It's obvious that they are a band now which works together for a while. The songs offer fast melodic power metal... Or call it what ever you want!
Who expect that Symphorce's Sinctuary sounds like Brainstorm's Ambiguity is wrong! Symphorce found their own musical identity and with this album made a huge step forward to the top of the German melodic power metal league. With the cover version Nice Dreams from Powermad they chose an unusal song which they play in their own style, but without losing the songs identity. Sinctuary is an album which surprised me, I haven't expect such a powerful and great album! Well done!


8 stars

Claudia Ehrhardt
 

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           ©2008-2015 by Claudia Ehrhardt • E-Mail: contact@ice-vajal.com


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