#bigelf

12:57 AM EDT October 10, 2022:

Bigelf - "Money, It's Pre Evil" From the album Cheat the Gallows (August 12, 2008)

After Forever: Prison of Desire (2000)

I’ve never been a big fan of power metal, symphonic metal, or melodic/sappy metal, in general, but I was genuinely excited about the Netherlands’ After Forever when I first heard this debut, 20 years ago (taking their name from a Black Sabbath song definitely didn’t hurt).

As I wrote in the All-Music Guide, 2000’s Prison of Desire was a courageous, if far from perfect, attempt at wedding heavy metal with progressive arrangements and classical music orchestration -- then topping it all with equal parts gruesome cookie-monster vocals and a classically trained opera singer!

Enter the incomparable Floor Jansen, who, in tandem with guitarist Mark Jansen (no relation), unleashed one of the most astounding ‘Beauty and the Beast’ vocal duets ever recorded!

But, before I resort to fanboy fawning over Floor, I’ll say that the musical end results here are mixed: frequently shocking, occasionally fabulous, sometimes not quite up to scratch (certainly not compared to ensuing albums), yet rarely anything less than fascinating.

Initial offerings such as “Leaden Legacy,” “Semblance of Confusion” and “Follow in the Cry” (with its distinctly creepy whispers) are the most effective, because they keep things relatively short and to the point, backed up by good hooks and memorable choruses.

Simply put: they do a better job of combining the wide range of ingredients cluttering up the band’s proverbial spice-rack than more adventurous excursions like “Black Tomb” (introduced by dense organs) and “Tortuous Threnody” (as confusing as it sounds). 

Also, despite the odd bit of thrashing (see the impenetrable “Inimical Chimera” and rather excellent “Yield to Temptation”), Prison of Desire depends too much on dragging doom tempos, which normally would pose no problem, except that these songs’ more delicate, refined aesthetic often cancel out the brute, absolute crush that makes for the best doom.

So I, for one, felt that After Forever benefitted significantly from picking up the pace and sharpening their songwriting and performance chops ahead of 2002’s far more satisfying follow-up, the borderline triumphant Decipher.  

And, all these years later, these guys are still my absolute favorite female-fronted symphonic/operatic outfit, way ahead of peers like Nightwish, Within Temptation, and even the closely associated Epica.

Friday, November 17: Bigelf, “Madhatter”

9:10 PM EDT March 28, 2020:

Bigelf - "Blackball" From the album Cheat the Gallows (August 12, 2008)

10:05 AM EDT June 23, 2020:

Bigelf - "Madhatter" From the album Hex (2003)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

12:35 AM EDT March 23, 2020:

Bigelf - "Falling Bombs\" From the album Hex (2003)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last\.fm

5:15 PM EDT July 28, 2019:

Bigelf - "Burning Bridges\" From the album Hex (2003)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last\.fm