Forevermore calls themselves Christcore, and I like that. I like the straight ahead mention of Christ in their description, but that doesn't help in the rating department unfortunately.
This is another prime example of good intentions that don't make it through to a good quality product. I really do hate to do reviews like this, but I feel it's in the best interest of you the readers to help you decide what to spend that hard earned money on. So please don't think I'm being mean, or have anything against these guys. I've never met them, and I have e-mailed back and forth a couple of times and they seem like good guys, but this tape is kind of lame.
Let's go ahead and look at the bad points first and justify the low ended rating. First off the production on this tape is pretty darn bad. It's got a lot of background noise and was originally recorded on only a 4-track so yes that does explain some of it. I have however heard pretty good recordings come off of 4-tracks, so not completely.
Musically this brand of hardcore is right along the lines of what I call average hardcore. There are no surprises here except for the last song "All Eternity" which the band says is "a lovely little punk bonus song." Maybe if I didn't hate punk so much this may have helped instead of hurt the review. I mean if you're going to do something as a bonus do something original and new, not tired old punk.
Ok enough with the bashing, let's highlight some positive aspects and show why I changed the rating from a 3.5 to a 5.
First off for your $5.00 you get a tape with 10 songs. Right there you gotta keep in mind, that you get what you pay for.
Second it's a first tape by a young band, and there is a lot of room for growth, which I'm sure will take place. These guys have their heads on right, and are focused on God and should be able to produce quality work in the future. Which by the way is not that far off. They have recorded songs for a Compilation CD that will be out in January by StraightForward Records and then will have a CD/EP out on Straight Forward as well early in 1998. So look for more by this band in the future.
I did not get a lyric sheet with the tape, which also went against them a bit, but the vocals are clean and clear and you can see that they are good solid lyrics like what I like to listen to, so that helped a bit too.
I'd definitely want to own a copy of this if I were in their area so that I could be more familiar with their songs at shows, but otherwise, I suggest waiting for that EP on CD to come out and see what Forevermore has to offer us.
