Endless Chain — Forthcoming Past

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ENDLESS CHAIN has released its dramatic, melodic metal album “Forthcoming Past” featuring multiple guest vocalists alongside drummer Samuli Mikkonen and multi-instrumentalist and project head Timo Mölsä. The first song “Forthcoming Past” comes in with a menacing vibe leading to some hard-hitting drums and things seem like they’re going to be nice and heavy. I was definitely immediately impressed by the singing and the power behind the vocalist’s voice. While this isn’t my preferred style of metal, I felt like things were off to a good start.

The third song “Hold Out Hope” is a sort of ballad, which to be honest, kind of bored me. But the guitar solo that begins about four minutes in is quite epic so the song does at least end on a good note. I am not a big fan of the songwriting or some of the vocal work on this album, but “All of the Above” really loses me vocally, even though it starts out hard-hitting and guitar heavy. The vocals sound like they tried to mix Grunge and Melodic Death Metal and it just doesn’t work. Aside from the guitar solos and occasional screams, this album doesn’t feel very metal, but it’s definitely melodic. It has few true metal moments. It’s also just a pretty depressing album because of the slowness throughout much of it and the lyrics. “A Letter” is another slow, dramatic song, however, the guitar work in it is undeniably good. And the singing is incredible as well.

The sixth song “Nothing More” surprised me quite a bit. Just when I was thinking “Great, another slow song” it got pretty heavy. I got to enjoy some screams and growls instead of the clean singing that takes up most of this album. I wish the album had more of it, because I think it would really add a lot to have almost an equal amount of both vocal styles. I think I would have rated this album higher overall if more of the songs were similar to this one.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear a woman’s voice singing on “Feel,” which starts out so beautiful. Her voice is something to behold. When the man’s voice comes in, things start to sound a little too “Phantom of the Opera” (which I like by the way, just not for this album). It’s an intensely melancholic song and might make you want to cry a little if you’re feeling kind of down already. “Scars on Me” gets us back into something upbeat finally but is lacking vocally and lyrically for me. I was worried the album might end on a slow note since there seems to be way too much back-and-forth between being metal and being ballad-y. The last song “The Memories” definitely confirmed my worries and left me on a bored note. There is absolutely some great musical talent on this album, it just didn’t all come together for me.

Songwriting: 5
Musicianship: 7
Memorability: 4
Production: 6