FORCENTURY – Vanguard

Ever since Heavy Metal inserted twin guitars into effect back in the mid 70’s, Metal and Rock fans alike discovered the full enjoyment out of remarkable partnerships between guitarists. The first was Judas Priest and after their newly formed style came waves after waves of twin-axed bands. Besides the heaviness involved, there are the enchanting melodies at work here. So why are those babbling about twin guitars? Well, it is all because of the review you will see right before you, a review made on the debut album of the Danish group, Forcentury. The key ingredients surrounding their music are melody and harmony, whether they are between guitars or between guitars and keyboards. Through those, a nice set of vocals, and a diverse approach, they debuted their Vanguard album. An album that turned out to be a good starting point for a band filled with grace.

The main story behind Forcentury is Progressive Heavy/Power Metal. As the bass drum bangs at the beginning of the solid opener, “Land Of Mirrors”, it seemed that Forcentury came to play and drill themselves through your ears. By keeping the flame of the 80’s and endorsing various of Prog techniques, Vanguard made a respected mark as it hypnotizes with a large amount of masterful riffs, melodies, breaking solo moments followed by charming harmonies a’la Maiden and Helloween, while creating an aura of both the present and the unknown future.

The question is… is the world doing fine right now, did the world do fine until now and will the world be doing okay in the unknown future? These sort of questions arise from Vanguard, and those are a huge part of the reason why it is not just a regular European Metal release. However, Forcentury stumbles on several holes here and there while on several zones everything turns a bit cold for such a warm creation. However those holes exist, which caused some of their tracks to be stuck on random moments, Forcentury have every reason to be confident over their new release. They channeled old and newer flames through a highlight range of tracks. Tracks as the ultra-melodic and Maiden-ish smasher “Valhalla’s Call”, the emotive and touchy “Love And Honor” (the best track this band wrote, a true masterpiece), darkening of “The Abyss” and the futuristic like yet quite melodic and horrific, “Bottom Line Zombies” (the most weird music for a song about zombies ever heard), makes a nice Metal picture.

Forcentury wrote an album with a lot of heart and did their share to make it capture eyes and ears all over the Metal world. As it was written earlier, it is a good start to begin a promising Metal career. Now go, take a ride with Forcentury to the past, present and future, ride with the Vanguard.