FORCEFEED – Forcefeed

Been a while since you heard ball breaking, down-tuned riffs with incredible power? Rusty Cage Records have labeled the Dutch five piece, Forcefeed, as an Extreme/Nu Metal hybrid, but a Groove Metal/Metalcore hybrid would be closer to the truth. With their self-titled album, Forcefeed delivers their third full-length aggressive Metal release, a release that’s bound to take them up from the underground once and for all.

The band was formed back in 2002 and released their first EP Choke On A Mouthful at the end of the same year. Two years later they released their first album When Grey Becomes, and from this album they chose to make a video for the song “The Things They Say.” Music channels like The Box and Dutch MTV aired the video regularly.

It took the band only a year and a half from the first album was released until they had released their second album, Stainless. It was released in October 2005, and following the release was a three week American tour.
Now, three years later, their new release, Forcefeed, is finally here to please their long awaiting fans.

“Grinder,” the album opener, is a song that holds mid-tempo all the way. Vocalist Lennard’s voice is great for the band’s musical expression. He doesn’t go all “core” with his scream/growl voice, but does it a bit deeper and more thorough than, for instance, Howard Jones (Killswitch Engage). The only Nu Metal elements you can trace is when he sings clean, and that isn’t necessary a Nu Metal element as lots of bands from other genres has utilized this in their music as well.

Nu Metal was a genre that held an extremely wide range of different bands, and with the exception of Linkin Park (that now are more or less a Pop/R&B group) the genre is more or less dead. The clean vocal parts on this record sounds nothing like Nu Metal, and it actually enriches the songs. Just listen to the clean vocal parts on “You Alone” which is nothing short of a beautiful break in an aggressive song.

While “Grinder” is, perhaps, the song that is chart material on Forcefeed, songs like “Break Away” and “No Answers” have a bit more to them than the first song on the album. In short, that means heavier and more complex riffs, and better vocal lines. The latter is the highlight of the album along with “Of The Masses,” “Buried And Gone” and “Egotrip.”

Forcefeed has seen a great production, mixing and mastering courtesy of Jochem Jacobs and Bouke Visser. All the instruments are well separated in the mix, but there’s still a muddy expression in the music, and it sounds kind of massive at times, which is great.

This band has a lot to offer fans of Groove Metal and Metalcore. The music they play isn’t the most merciless and aggressive you’ll find in these genres, but the songs are strong and well written.

Tracklist

1. Grinder
2. Break Away
3. No Answers
4. Of The Masses
5. You Alone
6. Moderation
7. The End Of All
8. Buried And Gone
9. Egotrip
10. Aftermath

Lineup

Vocals – Lennard Barendse
Guitars – Remy Beekman
Guitars – Marc Maquelin
Bass – Yoeri van Helvoirt
Drums – Bart Lissenburg