PRISON OF DESIRE

In the first place, my interest in this band came as a sort of "spin-off" of listening to Nightwish, after hearing their last album: "Endless forms most beautiful". They introduced a new vocalist here: Floor Jansen (at least on studio albums, she had already collaborated with them on a live album and almost a whole tour!!!), and the result was very good. So I started to investigate about her, and found that she had been at least in two bands before: ReVamp and this one, After Forever. So I started to listen to After Forever discography (it's all on Spotify, if you want to hear it) a year or so, and now I'm relistening them, with a careful atention. First said, this review is about the version that appears in this page, the original tracklist, and not the "Extended Sessions", which, IMHO is full of unnecesary fillings that add nothing to the whole (if that would be the case, I would give it no more than three stars). This is not prog metal in the classic sense (they would do something near to it years later, on their homonimous disc), but it's more precisely defined as an stilized, and sometimes complex, goth metal (so, if you don't like goth at all, you may disagree with my rating). In a whole, the album is great, and it has a beautiful atmosphere that was lost on subsequent albums. The vocals of Floor are very beautiful, with a range even more impressive that the one she use with Nightwish. The growls of Mark, even if not perfect, add a strong and gladly received contrast, and set the textures of the melodies (in fact, in the few songs he doesn't sing, it seems like something is missing), something he will absolutely fail to do on the next album (Decipher). The only reason I have been doubtful about 4 or 5 stars, is because I really don't get why "The embrace that smothers" should be seen as a single theme. In fact, apart from "Mea Culpa" and "Leaden Legacy" (the former serving as an intro to the latter), I don't seem to find something that really binds them. I tried making a playlist, and playing them together, one after the other, but it just doesn't work at all. But, if you play the whole album, and forget this, it seems to me just perfect. So I would go for the 5 stars.