FORSAKEN infuses a lot of "Progressive" and "Melodic" elements in this album, which is evident in almost all the tracks, especially DESOLATED DREAMS & HEMISPHERES. On the downside it eats away a lot of their thrashy portions. Anyhow, FORSAKEN proves that their sense of melody is "rock solid". The album kicks off with a clean intro titled NOTHING, however it truly opens up with the catchy ALTER EGO. The song has a good structure with some catchy riffs and delicious solos, not to mention the neat keyboard parts. HEMISPHERES is another key track and my personal favourite, it starts off on a very Hindustani /Classical note and almost reaches it peak when the distorted thrashy riff kicks in. I was literally beating myself because of the disappointing production quality. The riffs sounded so powerless in that track. However it’s the outro solo that blasts away everything from its path. The minute long solo is fast, and definitely the best one from FORSAKEN after CAN'T LIVE IN FEAR. I would definitely love a remastered version of this track later on.
However not all tracks suffer because of the production quality. UNSTERBLICH and IMPOSSIBILITY OF REASON has a real "Old- School" feel to it. This was mainly possible because of Owais’ serious chop skills. He maintains the aggressiveness in UNSTERBLICH, while going mellow in HEMISPHERES & L.I.E.S. The latter contains the clean tones of Shivam Aggarwal, which is surprisingly good. He doesn’t try too hard in this track, but somehow it fits perfectly well with the song. However his growls aren’t awesome and definitely needs a little bit of work. Nakul’s keyboard attainments have improved a lot since the debut release, never sounding too cheesy or too atmospheric. Just the perfect one for the album. Unfortunately the bass suffers due to the recording quality and you would have probably got a better pair of ears than me if you can ever hear the instrument rumbling. The lyrics are well written, in fact there’s a verse I particularly like –
“At last
your life unrests
the wisdom of years
that make you a mess
where's the days
when you were alive
of simple thoughts
of simple lives.”
If you have had the patience to read through you would have probably understood by now that this is an album you cannot afford to miss. And you probably don’t have to spend a single rupee since its up for "Free Download". Overall, minus a few minor flaws, FORSAKEN has yet again churned out a kickass album. The 8 months of hard work has definitely paid off!
Bottom Line
An album that exceeds expectations, undoubtedly Forsaken's best!
