Foes
The Summit Lies Skywards

For the band Foes the summit lies skywards and by listening to their debut album I am bound to agree, they have the potential to climb very far and reach some impressive heights. And if you didn’t understand my allusion the title is in the first sentence and when it comes to this debut the clue might well be in the title. The cover isn’t very impressive but the focus is on what is within the cover so it doesn’t really matter that much.

The quartet’s music can be described as progressive rock with strong, almost magical melodies. Excellent production, brilliant sound and many other positive things can be said about this album. Decent variation and the tempo is relatively varied up to midtempo, there are however nothing really uptempo and that is something that could make this album suffer as it could really benefit from something a bit more pacey. And while on the subject of things that can improve, I think the vocals could be a bit more daring – I think the singer, who is rather good by the way, stays too much within his comfort zone.

It is a strong album, the melodies are interesting and intricate and I think they have put together a strong effort. I good debut and a good album with good songs, but for some reason it doesn’t quite grab me – the album works well but there is something missing. Perhaps it needs a bit more drama, more dynamics and something a bit more uptempo.

It does catch me at times though, like in the ending track called Everest where I almost get the sensation of standing there looking skywards at the summit within my grasp and no sign of blizzards or other nasty things that could show up near the top of the world. I really like that track, it is a brilliant ending of a strong album that I like but that I also think would have been better had it only had a little more pace at times.

HHHHHHH