Awake – Forever More

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Without any prior knowledge of recent progressive metal developments over the last twenty years, the UK’s Awake come across as a strong, melody-conscious and fairly talented band. The vocals are a little forced but genuinely rich sounding and rather soulful. The keyboards are a bit bland and little high in the mix sometimes, and the guitar-playing isn’t much to speak of, but otherwise Forever More is a respectable, even if not essential, modern rock record. There’s just one nagging issue – Awake sound overwhelmingly like Evergrey. Certainly they are not the only band to have adopted the Swede’s sound (label mates Borealis sound frightfully like Evergrey as well), but the similarities are still startling. Given the band are from the UK, you’d think the band would at least inject a British perspective on the rather Americanised sound Evergrey employ. The band’s singer even sounds like Tom S. Englund. This isn’t an entirely negative trait – because it is a good sound – and Awake still seem to write fairly good, memorable songs within this particular style of music, but the similarities between the two bands can bring the album down a notch and make it feel like a second-rate clone. There’s not enough genuine spark to the album to allow it to overcome this flaw – leaving the album listenable, enjoyable even, but ultimately rather average.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Progressive, Quick.Play Reviews, Awake