Forever in Terror - The End (2009)

If there were any hope that Forever in Terror would somehow breakthrough and become one of the scene leaders in the New Wave of American Mallcore, residing alongside luminaries like All That Urine Stains, Shrill Bitch Engaged and As I Lay Crying, it must have been dashed out on the rocks of the shoreline when the band parted with Metal Blade records, their biggest ally and potential meal ticket in this scene. But this would not be enough to stop the young Ohio group in their tracks, because they decided to go on and release their sophomore opus The End independently, much to our relief.

Is the title of this album some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy, and am I a horrible person for crossing my fingers that this is the case? Regardless, a record label is not all that Forever in Terror have changed here. The band has honestly evolved their technical skills to a level of shred capacity far beyond the debut, and they will remind you of this with the constant noodling that preys upon your ears. It's not entirely appealing, and frankly I would rather listen to this on an Eric Johnson or Steve Vai record than a metalcore release, but its just one facet of the band's desire to make a progression in themselves, and to a degree I will actually applaud them. You see, The End sounds like the band might have been self-critical of their debut album and desired to conjure up something far more original, as if they had gotten their mitts upon some Between the Buried and Me or Protest the Hero records and decided this was the cool new wagon to saddle up and steer.

You'll notice the differences immediately in the first few tracks. "Sunlight Sands" opens like a driving melodic metal anthem sprinkled with pianos, and then punches through some taut but forgettable melodic death/thrash rhythms on its inevitable course to the breakdown. The vocals here are largely the same as the debut but fine tuned and slightly more effective. Sadly, the clean pop-punk/emo vocals are also still at work here, and they suck like a Blink 182 fan on his or her knees behind the bleachers with the scalper that got them front row seats. The music, however, is so convoluted and twisting that the listener will hardly be able to dwell on the pop elements. "Overboard" layers some Maiden-esque guitar melodies over a punishing backbone, before they erupt into total manic splatter/deathcore with constantly maneuvering guitars akin to Protest the Hero. This tune actually has a few decent seconds of mood within, though the band still hammer out a generic breakdown with more spikes of lead cutting through.

Yet, there are some tracks here even more frenzied, like "Lunar Fortress" and "Lazarus Mirror", and its interesting to hear the band as they keep coming back to the pianos to provide a more enriched, unique experience than their debut. "Until Valor" is a fairly glorious, technical conjuration with a number of well composed, clashing elements. In fact, I dare to say that if the band wasn't so determined to create a frothing frenzy of schizoid bliss through the compositions, and had actually spread some of these ideas out into sons rather than trying to cram them all in, we could have had a passable record. As it stands, The End feels like just too much going on and despite their improvements in technical proficiency, individual riff structure, and perhaps a few of the lyrical ventures, I quickly became overwhelmed with a desire to be elsewhere, listening to something else.

The End is by far the more interesting of this band's releases, and in fact if you were to skip their Restless in the Tides altogether, you would be missing absolutely nothing except a head ache and a 'told you so'. Granted, this is likely to give a headache all its own, as you are forced to listen to positive musical ideas smothered in grating, youth/deathcore vocals and an attention deficit disorder the size of Mt. Rushmore, but once again, the band proves that the further they move away from the expected conventions of this genre, the more rewarding they become.

Verdict: Fail [4/10] (we've waited for this call)

Forever in Terror - Restless in the Tides (2007)

I'm not sure what that poor guy on the cover to this Ohio metalcore band's debut did to them, but it must have been awful, because these kids not only hung him naked but also dipped him in a restless sea for any pirate, shark or angry squid to pick off. But heir bitter revenge doesn't stop there, because they fully intend to expand the grisly punishment to the listener of this album, Restless in the Tides, one of the most stupendously generic attempts to cash in on the rising metalcore/melodic death metal crossover scene that was probably just a few years too late to make a major impact. One could possibly feel some sympathy for the young band themselves, because they were obviously hungry and at the time this was the vehicle of choice if you wanted to make the maximum impression on the MySpace dimension in the least amount of effort, but shame on Metal Blade, a once excellent heavy metal music label, for signing up and helping distribute and perpetuate this bullshit.

As far as their individual talents are concerned, the members of Forever in Terror are honestly not wretched at performing their instruments with some tact and energy. The roots of their sound lie in the Swedish reign of melodic death metal which was pioneered by At the Gates, In Flames and Dark Tranquillity and then raped to and through the womb by a whole cast of irritatingly shitty American bands like the Black Dahlia Murder and the whole Western Massachusetts radio metalcore squadron. There are quite a few little, uplifting melodies colliding throughout the tracks, though none of them manage to stick to the thoughts beyond the actual experience, and technically the band has it all fairly tight, though I cannot vouch for any translation into the live setting. The mix of the album is average for the style, supportive of its excess breakdowns and drum work but allowing for the melodies to ring true and clear.

The real problem of course that every little random act of death metal, thrashing or true melodic death metal found on this record is just a means to the next breakdown, and the vocals are the epitome of awful, pedestrial US metalcore screaming and growling which becomes tired after only a song or two pass. There is this relentless commitment to the endless, chug and groove mosh riff, many of which are typical brick rhythms heard around the world many times now, for at least a decade, when bands like Earth Crisis and Hatebreed 'perfected it'. Mind you, Forever in Terror does not have a hardcore influence like those bands, they are simply interested in the use of the metallic breakdowns to get the crowd roused and impress all the other bands and fans of this style. The band doesn't solely chug during many of these uninspired segments, though, they very often incorporate evil sounding leads and scales in the vein of a Slayer or Death. Unfortunately, these are formulaic and rather dull.

A great deal of the material on Restless in the Tides is completely forgettable tripe, but there are a few moments spotted about the mallcore rambling that actually do shine. Tracks like "The Chosen One" resort to fucktarded Killswitch Engage styled, soulful clean vocal chorus breaks to show the band's emotional side and pop sensibility (attention record label execs!), but then there are moments like the extended lead break "In the Face of the Faceless" where the band actually begin to resemble a metal band. In fact, the band's quality index rises and peaks the further away from the terrible breakdowns they journey, and if it weren't for such abysmally trendy sequences glaring at me every 20-30 seconds in these songs, I might have been able to develop a greater appreciation. Most of their songs teeter around in the 4-5 minute range, and generally feature about 30-60 seconds of half-decent music, but occasionally they'll go for an 'epic' approach as in "Shameless Crucifixion" or the title track. By epic, I mean the same shit as the other songs, only with an acoustic, In Flames-like outro ("Shameless Crucifixion") or proggy breakdowns with more of the hideously annoying clean, emo vocals with some clean guitars and even violins, which might take you by surprise if you actually cared by the time "Restless in the Tides" actually shows up.

This is far from the most talentless band of hacks out there, and when they show their willingness to branch out beyond the malevolent grasp of all things mall, they actually do begin to sparkle like a newborn baby's urine as it involuntarily splashes its parents for the first time. If they'd only disembark from the obvious trends they are attempting to line their pockets with, who knows what manner of potential would develop? But everything from the shit cover art, shit logo, weak lyrics seemingly borrowed from some angry freshman goth girl's English notebook, forgettable breakdown centrifuge of the writing, atrociously mediocre rah rah vocals and overkill of In Flames styled melodies needs to first be replaced if they're to make their way through the foggy haze of recognition and survive the inevitable collapse of this 21st century castration of extreme music.

Verdict: Epic Fail [2/10] (locked in a cellar of distress)