Symphorce - Become Death
Metal Blade
Dark Heavy / Power Metal
10 songs (52'01)
Release year: 2007
Symphorce, Metal Blade
Reviewed by Chris

Symphorce new album Become Death is here and while not the heaviest as promised by the band, it delivers much variety in the 10 songs presented here. Symphorce if one of these bands I really enjoy listening their albums when they get out, but quickly lose interest and almost never bring the CD back in the player. I get the feeling this album won't be much different.

The album is quite solid, with great overall vocal performance and strong riffing and overall heaviness in the songs, without losing the melodic touch then and there, but Symphorce isn't overly melodic, and can be almost thrashy at times. And for those of you who know me a little, Thrash isn't one of my favorite genre. Still, the overall is still heavy and melodic enough to keep me interested, I just switch off on the parts I dislike. The album contains a good variety of song, from crushing riff based ones to almost gothic songs like In The Hopes Of A Dream. Actually the piano and arrangements are what gives that song a gothic feel to it. The more I listen to this album the more I can't shake the feeling that there is a lot of Angel Dust influences in many of the songs. Which isn't a bad thing as I'm a big fan of Angel Dust. But from the opener to almost the last song, it would be difficult to miss the influence. The album contains its fair share of great songs, like Darkness Fills The Sky, In The Hopes Of A Dream, Death Has Come (love the "Bad Boys" intro :) ), Inside The Cast (great melodic intro and overall song), Towards The Light & Lies. While there is no bad track per say, there are some boring moments within some of the songs. This inconsistency within some songs is what never made me become a big fan of this band. But there are some perfect ones in this album, Inside The Cast is an awesome song and my favorite of the album, varied, ultra-melodic, diverse in both vocals and rhythms, a masterpiece song like I wish Symphorce would deliver in abundance. Too bad not all songs on this album aren't of this caliber.

Definitely a treat if you like hypercubic riffing, heavy songs, with some nice melodies, great vocals and strong (in my opinion) Angel Dust influences. But this album contains some weak moments in my opinion, and its not very original either. I'm sure fans of the band will love it though I'm sure they'll recognize that its not their best album to date. If you're looking for Dark and Heavy Power Metal bands in the vein of Angel Dust or Brainstorm, then Symphorce can deliver some great heavy & crushing songs, underlined with some nice melodies then and there. A solid effort, but nothing ground-breaking in my opinion.

Killing Songs :
Inside The Cast, Darkness Fills The Sky, Towards The Light & In The Hopes Of A Dream
Chris quoted 76 / 100
Other albums by Symphorce that we have reviewed:
Symphorce - Unrestricted reviewed by Jaime and quoted 45 / 100
Symphorce - Godspeed reviewed by Marty and quoted 86 / 100
Symphorce - Twice Second reviewed by Jay and quoted 74 / 100
Symphorce - Phorceful Ahead reviewed by Danny and quoted 75 / 100
Symphorce - Sinctuary reviewed by Danny and quoted 91 / 100
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There are 4 replies to this review. Last one on Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:05 pm
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