{"id":21278,"date":"2012-07-31T05:36:44","date_gmt":"2012-07-31T10:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=21278"},"modified":"2013-02-05T16:12:41","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T21:12:41","slug":"forte-unholy-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/forte-unholy-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Forte | Unholy War<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Are we in the middle of a revival of the classic \u201cpower\/thrash\u201d sound? In the last couple of years we\u2019ve seen killer albums from bands like Helstar and Vicious Rumors, the return of Sanctuary after a decades-long absence, a whole new breed of bands taking up the sound, and now we have the resurrection of Forte, one of the best (yet most consistently overlooked) bands in the power\/thrash realm. It\u2019s been more than a dozen years since the band\u2019s last album (1999\u2019s Rise Above<\/em>), but you wouldn\u2019t know it from the sheer energy they display on Unholy War, their fifth full-length album.<\/p>\n

When it\u2019s done right, the power\/thrash sound can really capture the best elements of the two genres. You get the melody and classic heavy metal influence of power metal, but the melodramatic cheesiness is replaced by the speed, aggression and darker lyrical focus of thrash metal. With Unholy War, Forte is essentially conducting a master class in how power\/thrash is done. Just about every aspect of this very powerful, very intense album is perfectly executed. Jeff Scott delivers some absolutely blistering guitar riffs here, balanced perfectly by a good sense of melody. On the rhythm side, \u201cRev\u201d Jones and Greg Scott are a jaw-dropping combo, operating with the kind of complexity you\u2019d usually find on a progressive metal album (not to mention intensity worthy of a death metal album). Vocally, David Thompson brings a gruff but powerful \u201cscreaming for vengeance\u201d kind of energy that brings to mind former Iced Earth singer Matt Barlow. Actually, between Jeff Scott\u2019s riffs and Thompson\u2019s vocals you can\u2019t help but think this is what Iced Earth could sound like if they stopped trying to be epic and got back to their roots.<\/p>\n

Unholy War<\/em> is a remarkably strong album from start to finish, but there are a few songs that stand above the rest. \u201cAbsolute Power,\u201d \u201cStronger than Death\u201d and \u201cRain of Fire\u201d are just fantastic examples of Forte\u2019s core sound, and the title track and \u201cGears of Damnation\u201d are the perfect songs to get heads banging and pits forming. Album closer \u201cLight to the Blind\u201d is an interesting way to wind things down. It\u2019s not bad at all, but is more of a traditional power metal song and doesn\u2019t have the same intensity the rest of Unholy War has.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s awesome to have a band like Forte back on the scene, especially when they\u2019re still able to record an album of this caliber at this stage in their career. Unholy War<\/em> is an incredible example of the power\/thrash sound, and is sure to please fans of thrash, power and just high quality heavy metal in general.<\/p>\n

Genre: Power Metal, Thrash Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nJeff Scott (g)
\nGhames \u201cRev\u201d Jones (b)
\nGreg Scott (d)
\nDavid Thompson (v)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tVae Solis
\n2.\tUnholy War
\n3.\tDead to Me
\n4.\tTake the Mark
\n5.\tAbsolute Power
\n6.\tUndying
\n7.\tStronger than Death
\n8.\tRain of Fire
\n9.\tGears of Damnation
\n10.\tLight to the Blind<\/p>\n

Label: Tribunal<\/p>\n

Website: www.myspace.com\/fortemetal<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.75\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist — Are we in the middle of a revival of the classic \u201cpower\/thrash\u201d sound? In the last couple of years we\u2019ve seen killer albums from bands like Helstar and […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[336,2291,1097,334,1101,4962],"class_list":{"0":"post-21278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012","7":"tag-cd","8":"tag-forte","9":"tag-power-metal","10":"tag-review","11":"tag-thrash-metal","12":"tag-tribunal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}