After Forever
Biography
Originating in Holland, After Forever represent a distinctly new-millennium breed of heavy metal band -- one rooted in familiar styles such as doom, Gothic and power metal, but utilizing the seemingly contradictory element of a sweet, female voice to offset the music's reigning aggression. In their case, this vocalist is operatically trained soprano Floor Jansen, whose contributions bring bands like the Gathering, Tristania, and Nightwish to mind. Alongside guitarists Sander Gommans and Mark Jansen, bassist Luuk van Gerven, keyboardist Jack Driessen, and drummer Joep Beckers, she helped transform mid-'90s metal band Apocalyps into After Forever while most members were still in their teens. Signing with Transmission Records, the band issued their debut album, Prison of Desire to great acclaim in the year 2000, then quickly followed it with 2001's more refined Decipher (featuring new keyboard player Lando van Gils, and drummer Andre Borgman). With their profile now rising fast (at least domestically), two singles, "Emphasis" and "Monolith of Doubt," were extracted from the latter album to title E.P. releases, and Floor also found time to lend her talents to space-metal composer Arjen Anthony Lucassen's vaunted Star One project. 2003 saw the release of an EP/DVD named Exordium & Insights, and after replacing original guitarist Mark Jansen with Bas Maas, After Forever released their third full-length album in 2004's Invisible Circles. ~ Ed Rivadavia, All Music Guide
Selected Discography
sounds great to me! Floor needs some good guitars to back her up. AF's are too weak and "poppy" to me.
|
||
Who's in favor of Floor picking up some death metal guitarists for her new ReVamp project?
With death metal riffage, the guitaring might actually be strong enough to stand up to her voice. |
||
blasted Pandora! I have to go to Grooveshark to hear this band in order to hear a song! >:(
to add my few cents, I don't listen to them much anymore, but I give Lacuna Coil my thanks for them getting me into gothic metal. the music is monotonous at times and their albums rough listens depending on mood, but I still enjoy several songs. |
||
That is indeed exciting news, I shall have to keep an eye out for that.
|
||
Exciting News: Floor Jansen will be recording again! The new band is called ReVamp and the first album is set for 2010!
|
||
I actually think LC is pretty good. Sure, they can be monotonous at times but they were one of the first bands in their genre.
|
||
Okay, I'll admit that Heaven's A Lie isn't as bad as most of their stuff. But besides that and Our Truth, I hate all their music.
|
||
I actually like some of Lacuna Coil's songs, but I will certainly not dispute that quite a lot of them are indeed very monotonous. They are by far the most 'hit and miss' of the many bands in this particular genre that I listen to.
|
||
fuzzywuggums :
The Edenbridge singer gets ninth place :) On Christina... I hate Lacuna Coil. It's pretty simple. I think their music is boring, monotonous, and not creative at all. I have given them many tries, but still the only song I didn't DESPISE was Our Truth. |
||
Hey 12nights I think your forgot Christine Scabbia :) and what about Sabine Edelsbacher from eden brdige :)
|
||
I just picked up the After Forever album and I have to say I am loving Floor Jansen's voice. Very cool.
|
||
@12nights: Ann Wilson, hell, yeah!
Of course, there are very few vocalists(ma l e and female) that I dislike in metal. I even like Alexander Krull from Leaves' Eyes and Atrocity. Btw, LE has come out with a new album that Pandora doesn't have on here, yet. That new album has a new bassist-a woman. I have yet to buy it, but I did see this on their myspace page. |
||
Floor is my favorite female vocalist too!
However, I rather hate Tarja... I think she sucks, her voice always annoyed me. This is why I am very happy that Anette joined Nightwish! Favorite female singers: 1.Floor Jansen 2.Anette Olson 3.Pat Benetar 4.Vibeke Stene 5.Angela Gossow (hehe) 6.Ann Wilson |
||
Floor Jansen and Tarja Turunen are my two favorite female vocalists, with Simone Simons running in third.
|
||
I agree with Kage Kloud: huge props to Pandora for giving exposure to such a diverse, global variety of artists! I never realized this style of music was so prevalent outside the U.S.... and I love it!
|
||
I intend no disrespect but,
Corey says: 03-10-2009 "Damn shame they broke up." This comment is INCREDIBLY understated; NO words can convey the loss for the WORLD. "I'm sure we'll see Floor again, cant see her just retiring. Great band....." I can only hope and prey that you're correct, but I fear she may not choose this genre. And don't get me wrong, she will rise to the top of ANY type of music she chooses to pursue. |
||
I fell in love with these guys once they started playing on my Within Temptation station. A year later and I have all their albums on my iTunes. =)
|
||
I love pandora for turning me on to these bands, another good one. C is for cookie and thats good enough for me.
|
||
Well, when I first started listening to metal, I really hated the growling/scr e a m i n g . But then, I started to really like it. I think it adds a lot to the music, especially when contrasting with soprano female vocals.
I agree with Plague of Unicorns, on some songs it's just awful, but when done right, it's great! A good example of "good" growling is the song "On The Wane" by Sirenia. The growling vocals on that are excellent, with a sort of "hiss" that borders on screaming. |
||
OMG... I can't stand Cookie Monster vocals. Way to ruin a decent song.
|
||
I discover the band, then find they won't be making anything new anymore...
|
||
Damn shame they broke up. I'm sure we'll see Floor again, cant see her just retiring. Great band.....
|
||
Oh my God, but I love Pandora. Never heard of this group till tonight, but a great addition to my fondness of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and Lucana Coil. I'm in heaven, this gal is sweet.
|
||
Yeah, Floor has a great voice. Plus, she seems like the kind of girl you could just hang with, play a video game or something.
|
||
Floor's vocal strength reminds me of a quote about Paul McCartney; he was described as having 'an iron grip on fragility.'
|
||
I agree with you, Little Miss Spookiness. Her voice rocks!!!!
|
||
Floor has one of the best voices in the business. It's sweet & feminine without sounding like a little girl, but very strong & gives a wonderful contrast to the male vocals & rather masculine-so u n d i n g music. She's right up there with Tarja & Sarah Brightman in my book.
|
||
She also does a kick-a** version of 'The Evil that Men Do'! Bruce would be proud!
|
||
I agree. She totally holds her own when the song gets heavier. She has such a tender timbre to her voice to be able to rock so hard! Great band!
|
||
Two words: Floor Jensen. Her voice is so much more powerful than most in this genre and it's far richer in tone. She's so versatile--s h e can obviously hit those high notes (just give a listen to Monolith of Doubt), but then she totally rocks out (listen to Face Your Demons). The entire band is simply amazing and I love them. I hope they tour the States soon.
|
||
Beautiful Emptiness for me was more emptiness than beauty. That song is not for me. Not a fan of minor key tonalities in melodies.
|
||
Compare, perhaps, with The Gathering--c h e c k out 'In Motion #1' on youtube. Sweeeeeeeeee e e t ! ! ! ! !
|
||
Yea, the stupid growling men voices in the background are a real turn off. The lead vocalist is amazing though, and I wish she would sing to me every night.
|
| report abuse |




