UPSTREAM

Not very long after their debut album was released, Feedforward dropped me a note telling me that their singer Biejanka had left the band. She was moving to Finland with her boyfriend and her powerful voice, leaving the band behind looking for a new singer. After looking for a mail singer for a couple of months, the band decided to stick with femal vocals when Patrice auditioned for them. A wonderful choice, it turned out...

Where the first album, Barefoot and Naked, contained a lot of power, show casing the vocals of Biejanka and the musicianship of the individual band members on tracks that would always remind me of another band (Savatage, Dream Theater, Rush), Upstream takes a different approach. The power is still there, and even though Patrice has a quite different voice from Biejanka's, both ladies remind me of Anneke van Giersbergen, the music is much more... well, Feedforward. This means we get powerful riffs, nice guitar and keyboard solos and lots of changes in tempo, rhythm and volume without ever loosing the feeling that we are listening to a single track, or a single album.

This is a metal album of the kind where every instrument is allowed to contribute to the melody - maybe with the exception of the drums, but even Pi tries sometimes. The mid section of the long closing track For Now may be the best example of that. Guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals each go their own way, but stay together at the same time. This track really requires a couple of listens to hear everything.

Similarly, songs like Relevant, Deepest Thoughts and Promises have their own intricacies, where the latter is probably the only track where I really had reflections of another band. Somehow, I have the feeling that guitarist Mario is quite fond of Iron Maiden - the guitar work is on par with what Adrian Smith and Dave Murray did on The Trooper, yet the solo is 100% Feedforward.

After listening to the album on and off for a couple of weeks, I can only conclude that Feedforward has grown in the past 4 years, and hopefully a third album will follow. This band deserves more than a listen from those who enjoy female fronted progressive metal.

Last time, I rounded off 3.5 stars to 3, this time I'm inclined to round up to 4, with the notion that it would then mean Excellent addition to any prog metal music collection

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