Band:	Symphorce
Album:	Twice Second
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	January 2004

01. Fallen
02. Tears
03. Whatever Hate Provides
04. Cause Of Laughter
05. In The Cold
06. Take What's Mine
07. Face Of Pain
08. Searching
09. Two Seconds To Live
10. Cry On My Shoulder
11. Under The Curse [Limited Edition bonus]
+ Making Of Twice Second Video [Limited Edition bonus]

This is a quite interesting release, not only because the front man, Andy B. Franck, is the singer in Brainstorm too, and that one of the guitarists is Cédric "Cede" Dupont from Freedom Call, no the music is good even if it have it's bad sides too. And the artists aren't newbies.

"Twice Second" is their 4th release since Andy formed the band in 1998.
In 1999 they released their debut, "Truth to Promises", after that one did "Cede" joined Symphorce and gave them very strong and great guitar play, which they would need to establish in the top. At the same time, Dennis Wohlbold joined on bass.
They recorded the successor in 2000 and named it "Sinctuary".
Then did the last two members join and complete Symphorce, Sascha Sauer on drums and Markus Pohl on Rhythm guitar.
Then they signed with Metal Blade and released their third record, "phorcefulAhead" in 2002.
And now it's 2004 and their new album, "Twice Second" have just been released and got very good critics from the press already!

It's a very hard album to review; I have to say that already now, so you know.
At least it's hard for me.
Sometimes it reminds me of the little I heard with Evergrey just for the next second sound like Brainstorm, and sometimes like nothing I ever heard.
Nevermore is another band that surfing around in my head while listening to Symphorce, it's not that majestic as Nevermore, I mean, it's no Warrell Dane on vocals, it's Andy B. Franck, so it's more Brainstorm alike, but a little rougher.
But I quite like the mix, it's not something that I feel "Wow, damn this rocks" but I find it enjoyable and it's a good album.

Unfortunately I haven't heard the past releases by Symphorce so I don't know how much they have progress since the past releases, but I have read that it's quite much.
So you that heard the past releases can look forward to a quite big progress since the last and maybe this is their best release to date.
It a very energic album, it's not many very slow parts on it; it's more of a power album.

The cover artwork is pretty nice done, but what else can we expect from Mr. Smith? I mean, he isn't famous for doing bad covers.

The bad thing I see with this release is that it's no Superb album, and it don't have that Superb song that can carry the album to the top, but it's easy to see the potential in Symphorce, and they can go very far, in the future, but not now and not with "Twice Second".

I would recommend this album to fans of bands like Brainstorm, Evergrey (a bit) and Nevermore; 'cause that is the closest this music gets to other bands.


Favorite songs: Well, this is a hard part; it's like that I don't have a favorite or a worst song, all is quite equal, I think. Choose your own!