Forbidden Seed
From Sand to Eternity
Rock Of Angels Records
2015
Forbidden Seed are being described in their press release as American Power Metal… this description is however a little misguiding, because one expects to listen to something like Jag Panzer, Omen, Lizzy Borden… something of “that” sort, given the above description. In actuality, Forbidden Seed play a rather loud and abrasive hybrid of Heavy Metal with quite strong rhythmical elements that they attempt to modernize with more “aggressive” vocals that they also seem to sort of abandon midway through the album, progressively getting less and less aggro…
One of their guitarist, who also is credited as the singer, is at the very least mediocre and sounds accented in a quite annoying way a lot of the time, while when he really belts out that same effect is seemingly diminished… his efforts to sound extra aggro or to do some harmonic back ground vocals (that on occasion is also handled by a trebly female voice that’s mixed quite annoyingly and inexplicably upfront/high) seem to be quite ill fated. Also while the performances aren’t bad, without being some sort of awesome either, they seem to be quite averagely recorded and mixed, delivering an end result that lacks in terms of balance and presence… while there is separation, the way some instruments sound is less than ideal.
They claim to have some Iced Earth, Evergrey (earlier) and Tad Morose influences… I guess I can hear some of the first two in tracks like “Kill the Sun” but with nowhere as brilliant ideas and as for the Tad Morose comparison, I guess, they wish they sounded like that…. they’re not on par with even the latest incarnation of the Swedes, without that meaning that they are necessarily bad either… they’re just nowhere that good. It’s really a pit that the quadrilogy of song that constitutes the “Sand to Eternity” suite – especially parts 3 & 4 – “Oblivion” and “Empire of the Sun” are not sung by a better singer… by the way, there seems to be more of an effort in “If a Soul is Not Free” (at least in the middle part) and “Enchanted Grace” (which also marks a return of the “annoying female backing vocalist), which sound almost convincing, but then the final track “Life Itself” falls again prey to the lazy aggro vocal performance that I’m so much against…
The band doesn’t have bad ideas, but they need to really work on production and especially on the vocal production a lot more to be on a comparable level with other local and international bands…
One of their guitarist, who also is credited as the singer, is at the very least mediocre and sounds accented in a quite annoying way a lot of the time, while when he really belts out that same effect is seemingly diminished… his efforts to sound extra aggro or to do some harmonic back ground vocals (that on occasion is also handled by a trebly female voice that’s mixed quite annoyingly and inexplicably upfront/high) seem to be quite ill fated. Also while the performances aren’t bad, without being some sort of awesome either, they seem to be quite averagely recorded and mixed, delivering an end result that lacks in terms of balance and presence… while there is separation, the way some instruments sound is less than ideal.
They claim to have some Iced Earth, Evergrey (earlier) and Tad Morose influences… I guess I can hear some of the first two in tracks like “Kill the Sun” but with nowhere as brilliant ideas and as for the Tad Morose comparison, I guess, they wish they sounded like that…. they’re not on par with even the latest incarnation of the Swedes, without that meaning that they are necessarily bad either… they’re just nowhere that good. It’s really a pit that the quadrilogy of song that constitutes the “Sand to Eternity” suite – especially parts 3 & 4 – “Oblivion” and “Empire of the Sun” are not sung by a better singer… by the way, there seems to be more of an effort in “If a Soul is Not Free” (at least in the middle part) and “Enchanted Grace” (which also marks a return of the “annoying female backing vocalist), which sound almost convincing, but then the final track “Life Itself” falls again prey to the lazy aggro vocal performance that I’m so much against…
The band doesn’t have bad ideas, but they need to really work on production and especially on the vocal production a lot more to be on a comparable level with other local and international bands…