Troyen - Falling of the Edge of Forever

Share this on Facebook | Share this on Twitter

Several times I have had the pleasure to go the English NWOBHM festival called Brofest in the beautiful city of Newcastle Upon Tyne. What made this festival unique is that they were able to convince a lot of old bands to reunite and come and play on their stage at the University. That's how I've been able to see a lot of great bands I never thought I'd see live.

TROYEN played on Brofest #3 in February 2015 and did a good show. I was there and I have to admit that they didn't get my heart racing or my mind exploding. No, they played a solid set, but musically they didn't light any fires for me. In comparison to some of the others that played there, they just weren't exciting enough for me. As music is a taste you know you can never win them all. I did speak to the guys afterwards and found out that they are very nice lads with their hearts in the right places.

After this show the ball kept on rolling for them and they played a lot of Western European festivals for a few years. They also released their album “Finish What You Started”. Since then, they've given us more music and now, in the latter months of 2021, their latest offering “Falling Off The Edge Of Forever” is ready to take on the world.  What surprises me is the beautiful cover of the album. It is a true work of art. What disappoints me is the rather poor production sound of the album, making a properly balanced review a lot more difficult to write.

It has taken me a lot more listening sessions before I had to come to the conclusion that for me “Falling Off The Edge Of Forever” is the album with the best songs that TROYEN has ever written. So, in that respect they are making progress, which is very pleasing. But then again, the demo like sound makes it a challenge to differentiate the good from the lesser parts and try and spin this into a coherent wall of sound in my ears and brains. I just hope that the real fans won't be deterred by my comments and check this out, because although I might not be over the moon with TROYEN and “Falling Off The Edge Of Forever”, I really do like the effort they put in. Pity about the sound.

Songwriting: 7
Musicianship: 7
Memorability: 6
Production: 4