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Fullforce: Next Level
Fullforce: Next Level
Melodic/Heavy/Power Metal
4.0/5.0
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SPV/Steamhammer Records
by Craig Hartranft, 10.24.2012
What could be a better title for your sophomore album than Next Level? It suggests progress and growth in development of a band. For Sweden's Fullforce, at the very least, it implies that they're increasing or advancing the strengths delivered on their debut One.
Fullforce: the camera is that way, boys.
Fullforce remains a very skilled, expert, melodic heavy metal band. They can be quite heavy and assertive, adding power metal to their arrangements, as on Whispers or Karma. Of course pure metal finds its way in Mysterious Way. Yet they also seem to up the groove in their metal on Next Level, something familiar from the previous work, now accentuated on tunes like Broken Dreams, Visions, Back to Life.
Sometimes the groove really rocks as Fullforce generates what some may hear as simply melodic heavier rock as on Course of Life and Awesomeness. Then combining that solid groove with arena accessibility, Fullforce can offer anthems like Visions and A Night to Remember, which nearly borders on a metal ballad. And, unlike One, there are ballads here, two of them, in Smile at the World and Strongest Thing of All, both with some nice acoustic guitar.
Fullforce's Next Level is another solid effort from the band, perhaps more an advance of their signature melodic heavy metal sound than a progression into new territory. Recommended.
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Fullforce's Next Level is another solid effort from the band, perhaps more an advance of their signature melodic heavy metal sound than a progression into new territory.
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