Farcry
Balance

This makes it three albums for the band Farcry, it is called Balance. But it wasn’t exactly certain that it should be a third album, the band released albums in 2009 and 2011 and then the singer left the band and they disbanded shortly after. Main man Fry didn’t really think that he would ever do something more under the Farcry moniker, but later on he found a new singer and all of a sudden, a new album saw the light of day about a decade after the last one. I am thinking that he didn’t want a continuation of Farcry at first when the singer had left and things turned stale or whatever, why not just bring a new band to life – I don’t think it can be that much benefit of using an old band no one really knows about. But what do I know, I didn’t hear them back then and as far as I know most AOR bands sounds more or less the same anyway so maybe it doesn’t matter. But what about the album?

It is melodic rock or AOR, in a paint-by-numbers kind of style. Catchy choruses and strong melodies are on offer here, the vocalist is according to genre standard and the variation what you can expect from an album within the genre. There are no surprises. Non whatsoever. Balance offers an excellent production and has a really good vocalist, there are ten tracks and a playing time of less than forty-five minutes. It is an easy album to like, and it will feel quite familiar, to some that is probably a positive thing while others are less positive to things like that.

Solid AOR, an album with good songs and melodies, good vocals, and so on. As I wrote before, it is easy to like and initially it is easy to think of it as rather great. But then you quickly grow tired with it as it doesn’t offer anything we haven’t already heard before, and that sense of novelty does a lot for the longevity and impact of an album. This one doesn’t really impact at all; I get the sense of déjà vu when I listen through this album. Soon I begin to ask myself why, why are so many bands satisfied to copy what others have done – don’t they have a will of their own, or are they completely without their own ideas?

We have heard this before and if you are looking for something new and fresh this album wouldn’t be a good choice. You might find it quite agreeable if you are into the AOR category, it is good enough to never be really wrong and it is fine to listen to. Still, it is hard to shake that sensation of having heard it all before.

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