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After Forever Announces 25th Anniversary Reunion Celebration Performance in 2025

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Dear After Forever fans, 2025 marks a monumental milestone: 25 years since After Forever left a timeless footprint on the world of symphonic metal with their debut album ‘Prison of Desire’. Its 2001 successor, ‘Decipher’, pushed their music even further, fusing progressive elements with a heavier sound that helped shape the symphonic metal of today. These two releases marked the start of a wonderful journey – one that took the band to international stages and into the hearts of fans all over the world.

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“After Forever” by After Forever

Artist: After Forever
Title: “After Forever”
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: 9/25/2007
Genre: Melodic Gothic Metal
Rating: 4.5.5

I’m happy to report that I had been a fan of After Forever’s for a few years by the time that their signing to Nuclear Blast Records was announced, so when this happened I was not only excited about it but I also felt that I had a little bit more lead into what a whole new world of Metal fans would soon experience and most definitely enjoy. For those unaware, After Forever is a Dutch Symphonic Melodic Metal band that started out a little more on the Operatic side and this was when such a style was not as common as we find today. Since forming in 1995 they have morphed in sound and style and as result found themselves at times Dark Metal and almost always on the Progressive side. With After Forever music it is continually about power and majesty and now with their self-titled debut on Nuclear Blast Records are giving a brand new audience a taste of not only how they sound today but also a little look back into their storied past. The band was previously signed to the now defunct Transmission Records along with their current label mates Epica, another Dutch band of note that features AF’s former guitarist Mark Jansen. He would start Epica after leaving the ranks of AF and while they share a label once again each band offers the listener enough difference to have them equally enjoyable without any fear of repetition. Can we say that one group is better than the other well that is up to the listener to decide and I have to admit that I like the two acts equally. The newest album “After Forever” begins with a rousing flourish as the tune “Discord” kicks into gear and offers up a great Beauty & The Beast vocal duel. As soon as the song is underway you realize just how incredible the voice of Floor Jansen is.
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“Mea Culpa” by After Forever

Artist: After Forever
Title: “Mea Culpa”
Label: Tranmission Records
Release Date: 8/15/2006
Genre: Melodic Dark Metal
Rating: 5/5

In 2006 as their contract with Transmission Records was drawing to a close and the Dutch Melodic Metal band After Forever drew the curtain on their early years in preparation for the move forward into a hopefully promising future, a retrospective entitled “Mea Culpa” was released. Unlike many compilations that review a bands past and give the listener two choice tracks from each album, “Mea Culpa” would be far from the standard summary of the After Forever back catalog and instead present thirty three bombastic tunes in one of the most beautiful packages that I have ever seen for a release of this kind. The two disc set is broken up into distinct chapters with the first CD covering the years and albums that guitarist/grunt vocalist Mark Jansen was a part of the group. It’s on this disc that we find the albums “Prison Of Desire” and “Decipher” being once again brought to the front, and these are two truly powerful recordings that still have quite a bit of life to them. Knowing there are fifteen tunes on the first CD makes one think that they re-issued the entire album for the sake of the collection but what they did became all the more special as it is here we also find unreleased tracks and those that would only be found on band singles. As it begins it sets their heavy mood properly with “Mea Culpa”, an a-cappella tune loaded with big choir and brooding tones but from there is very much a dark feast of Melodic Metal. There are other Dutch musical superstars present as well and get a duet between Floor and Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) that is quite good and somewhere across the tracks Arjen Lucassen offers some guitar and keyboards.
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Overkill @ B.B. King Blues Club (10/21/2007)

Overkill are one of the truest legends of Thrash Metal and still deliver the goods in concert. This appearance found the band bringing along After Forever from Holland and they were another band that I really enjoy so I would not miss this show. If you want to read more just scroll past the logo.

Logo - Overkill

Artist: Overkill
Venue: B.B. King Blues Club (New York, NY)
Opener: After Forever
Date: 10/21/2007
Label: Bodog Music

Hot on the heels of the release of their latest slab of brutality, East Coast Thrash Metal veterans Overkill were on the road promoting it at New York City’s place for Metal B.B. King Blues Club & Grill. The band had performed earlier in the year on a spectacular bill that included Metal Church, Joey Belladonna and Meliah Rage and judging by the attendance observed as the night progressed no one seemed to mind that they had only caught the band a few months previous to this show. Tonight’s show would only find one band performing and it would be the Dutch sensation After Forever. Here’s a little bit about how the night went down.

After Forever: I’ve been fortunate enough to have had some experience and background with After Forever’s music and since the first time I heard them I have been a fan. The band isn’t new by any stretch of the imagination and has been around since 1995 delivering their very Melodic and often Dark Symphonic Metal. They are fronted by Soprano vocalist Floor Jansen who many might know from the works of Ayreon (another Dutch group of note). Tonight would be the bands very first time performing in NYC and this visit with Overkill would be part of the groups first ever visit to the USA. Oddly enough, as soon as the band arrived on US soil they would headline the ProgPower USA Festival as one of their first shows. The appeal in After Forever music is pretty wide because they are just such a “big” band in their overall sound. There is a healthy amount of melody going on and moments where they touch into darker territory via the use of growls and grunts on top of the crushing and powerful guitar riffs. The keyboards bring out the flourishing moments and the drumming is on the money as far as I have observed and this is what I had come to the conclusion of from only being exposed to a couple of their albums. Tonight would be a little bit of a celebration for After Forever as well, for it was not a month yet since their debut release was delivered on Nuclear Blast Records. They would leave the album as a self-titled one and having heard it already I knew the audience would be in for some thrilling music from these guys. They hit the stage like a hurricane with the opening track from their new album “Discord”, and when it came to “Transitory” you could feel that they meant business from the stage.
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“Invisible Circles” by After Forever

Artist: After Forever
Title: “Invisible Circles”
Label: The End/Transmission Records
Release Date: 8/24/2004
Genre: Melodic Gothic
Rating: 7.5/10

After Forever teased fans with what they were capable of on “Exordium”; now with “Invisible Circles” we get a better idea of the kind of power that this group holds in its hand. The band is labeled as Melodic Dark Metal and this fits especially well based on the lyrical storyline that is the basis of the album. The Soprano that is Floor Janses blends her amazing voice with the sad topics of loss, hardship and disappointment in one’s self. Behind her is a forceful group of talented musicians made up of Bas Maas (guitar, vocals), Sanders Gommans (guitars, grunts), Luuk Van Gerven (bass), Lando Van Gils (synths) and Andre Borgman (drums). The 6 member band has a full and in your face sound based on their musical abilities and the varied style of vocals presented during the songs. Both Sanders and Ben offer Floor accompaniment during the songs to some good result. Lead Singer Floor Jansen is stunning in her looks and a hurricane with her vocal prowess. One thing I felt when I heard her sing was a commanding power that is unlike the group’s peers in Nightwish and Epica (also Dutch and led by former After Forever guitarist Mark Jansen). The piece wastes no time in showing you that After Forever means business with the rousing “Beautiful Emptiness” and it begins the tale of a young girl, a child of loveless parents. The enclosed booklet allows you to get the whole story in a lot more detail throughout its 16 pages. The story itself has some interesting moments but the dialogue between the central characters that is blended in some of the songs takes a little bit away from it. The level of some of this seems distant, and my guess was they wanted you to feel this was being overheard from a distance. That kind of perceptions is better left for video or television since an album makes you question your hearing or the recording process. I think that to make this a better concept album, the dialogue should have been less prevalent and perhaps spread out more between the songs..
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