Future of Forestry – Twilight

This is one of those albums that I’m at a loss of words for. I’m full of mixed feelings for it, some good, some bad, and some just plain mediocre – and sometimes that makes it hard to really give out a final verdict on an album. I’ve listened to Twilight countless times over the past couple days, and I’ll definitely admit that it’s grown on me quite a lot, but there still seems to be something missing from Future Of Forestry‘s delivery.

The Christian pro-rock band plays a brand of airy, melodic, spacious rock – somewhere a long the lines of Muse, Dredg and This Day And Age with a vocalist that has taken some cues from the likes of Jim Adkins. The songs are quite full, they normally start out simply with a bare structure and simple guitar melody but as the song progresses Future Of Forestry builds up on the simple foundation constantly adding layers on top of it until it all comes together and really soars. Speak To Me Gently is the perfect example, starting off with a three beat guitar melody and then slowly building up with a fuller sound, soaring vocals and soothing background vocals all the while keeping the same riff throughout the backbone of the song. There are a few other tracks on the album that attack you with that power like You and I and If You Find Her.

But sadly, at the same time that those songs are captivating, a lot of the other tracks seem to fall into the background – and unless you’re only sitting there and completely tuned into to the music, the rest of the songs are forgettable, passable and sometime tiring. And it’s right there that the biggest disappointment lies: the fact that you know the skill is there but that they constantly just fall a little bit short. Sancitatis is the perfect example. It’s a four minute track, mostly instrumental, that is so close to being awe-inspiring but falls short which in turns make it almost passable. It tickles your heart strings but fails to give them a full blown pull, and that is the biggest disappointment – just that it’s so close but just not there yet.

Still, Twilight is far from bad. Eric Owyoung’s vocals are spectacular, there are a fair few solid tracks, you can listen to it repeatedly and there’s some definite promise. It has definitely grown on me quite a lot, the first time I was so bored I could barely get through it and now I’m excited to hear certain songs from it. If you like slow, soaring, spacious prog-rock, then Future Of Forestry is for you, but beware, for it may disappoint you in a few ways simply because they don’t have the power to completely hold you.