Band: Forgotten Suns

CD Title: “Innergy”

Band Website: www.forgotten-suns.com

Label: ProgRock Records

Label Website: www.progrockrecords.com

Release Date: 2009

 

This is the third release from Portugal’s Forgotten Suns, a follow-up to 2004’s Snooze and my, what a difference five years can make. The band having started out with five members went down to four and is now back up to five, all-be-it with a couple new players. The core of the band continues to revolve around Ricardo Falcao (guitar, vocals) and Miguel Valadares (keyboards). Filling out the band are J.C. Samora (drums), Nuno Correia (bass) and Nio (vocals). As you might expect with any change in personnel there is always the likelihood of a change of musical sound or direction and in the case of Forgotten Suns that’s certainly the case.

 

The new disc Innergy consists of eight tracks, most of which tend to be on the longish side. In fact three of them are over the ten-minute mark. The first thing fans of the band’s previous work will notice is that Innergy is a much harder rocking album. In fact if all you were to go by was the band’s photo on the back of the CD, you’d probably guess they were a prog-metal band, and you know what, you would be right. These eight compositions fairly bristle with hard edged guitar, powerful double-kick drumming and pounding bass. The keyboards are still present, but they’re clearly overshadowed by the crunchy guitar and driving rhythm. Now that said, there are still quite a few musical change-ups in the music, but whereas before we might be treated to something more symphonic that’s no longer the case. Forgotten Suns have taken a more direct approach. Whenever a softer interlude does come about its pretty much always followed by something quite aggressive. What this has a tendency to do is make the music sound less dynamic in that while there are softer parts, most everything else operates at the same loud volume. That’s not necessarily bad, because it creates a tremendous amount of energy, but it does tend to make it hard to distinguish one track from the next.

 

There’s no question the sound of Forgotten Suns has gone through quite a metamorphosis. Some fans of the band may in fact be a bit disappointed. The musicianship is still first rate. Innergy after all is their third CD release. The challenge for the band should they choose to continue to ply the prog-metal waters is to develop a style that differentiates them from so many of the others already in the genre. Still, it should be clearly stated that if you like your prog on the harder side, Innergy from Forgotten Suns will certainly satisfy that craving.