{"id":21438,"date":"2014-07-18T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2014-07-18T00:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=21438"},"modified":"2014-09-03T22:09:33","modified_gmt":"2014-09-03T22:09:33","slug":"album-review-forensick-the-prophecy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-forensick-the-prophecy\/","title":{"rendered":"FORENSICK – The Prophecy (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

FORENSICK
The Prophecy<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nPure Underground (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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German metalheads Forensick was born in 2010 out of two respective bands, namely Cruelty and Heap Of Ruins. The quintet released its self-titled album in 2012, and The Prophecy<\/em> signals the return for this denim-clad bunch. The line-up consists of vocalist Tobias H\u00fcbner, bassist Andreas Armbruster, drummer Julian Rocco Lepore, plus the guitar assault of Stephan Vogt and Matthias Ehmig. <\/p>\n

Although I never heard the band\u2019s debut opus, my first impressions of this sophomore album is that Forensick \u2013 in spite of a name which suggested to me that these guys were going to be a gore-obsessed metal band \u2013 are very much a traditional heavy metal outfit.<\/p>\n

The Prophecy<\/em> does everything it says on the tin with regards to being a no-holds barred, straight down the line warts \u2019n\u2019 all rocker which is influenced by Iron Maiden, and those sort of galloping fist-pumping bands. There are no real frills to offer, and I do at times struggle with the vocals which are a tad strained at times. This is immediately apparent with the opening \u2018Hero Of The Day\u2019, which is a basic bass-rattling, driving hard rock chest-pounder featuring a catchy riff and solid drum dash. It\u2019s nothing fancy, but then again I don\u2019t think it wants to be. With tales of ancient history and the darkness and propaganda, the likes of \u2018Doomsday Machine\u2019 and \u2018Dark Secret\u2019 have a tendency to labour, even with their energy \u2013 if that makes sense? <\/p>\n

With that rattle bass, those predictable solos and riffs, and that all too flimsy vocal wail, there\u2019s just no conviction to this flimsy brand of standard metal which seems to suffer time and time again from its generic outlook and outlay. \u2018When The War Begins\u2019 attempts the epic only to fail miserably as a contrived pile of beer-guzzling heroism wrapped up in a teenage angst that dragged metal down into the pits of mediocrity many moons ago.<\/p>\n

Clearly on a revival trip, Forensick has no identity of its own except a fa\u00e7ade built upon too many nights of listening to Helloween and Manilla Road, only to then be delivered without the force or majesty of either. Bands of this ilk are two a penny and they are all fighting for dominance in a world where it is a case of survival of the fittest, but what would help is a tinge of energy above mimicry. With a press release that speaks of the album boasting \u201cclear, charismatic vocals\u201d<\/em> teamed with \u201csteady heaviness\u201d<\/em> musically, I can only add that such ingredients make for an extremely boring listen, because in spite of the countless nods towards 80s metal, this is another contemporary record that leaves me cold.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FORENSICKThe Prophecy Pure Underground (2014)Rating: 5\/10 German metalheads Forensick was born in 2010 out of two respective bands, namely Cruelty and Heap Of Ruins. The quintet released its self-titled album in 2012, and The Prophecy signals the return for this denim-clad bunch. The line-up consists of vocalist Tobias H\u00fcbner, bassist Andreas Armbruster, drummer Julian Rocco […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1404],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-forensick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21438"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21441,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21438\/revisions\/21441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}