THERE’S A NEW KING IN TOWN

Ever Forthright is good. Really, really fucking good. A few months back I did a review of their self-titled album, which quickly propelled Ever Forthright into my ten favorite bands. This time around, I listened to the new songs that they’ve recently put on their MySpace page. All the new songs, as you can now hear them, are missing a vocalist, but guess what? They’re even better than their fantastic debut album, vocalist or not.

The thing about Ever Forthright that separates them from the endless sea of other technical metal bands is that each and every one of their songs sounds completely different from the last. It’s apparent that Ever Forthright knows what the fuck they’re doing. They’ve become masters of transition between technical guitar riffs, jazzy piano playing, melodic rhythm sections, and crushing breakdowns. Their music has become an eclectic mix of a wide range of styles that, with the right vocalist, could come together to form a masterpiece. (More after the jump, including a song and a download link . . .)

Dispose of Your Optimism and It Was Possible, It Was Necessary are both technical yet melodic, and both show Ever Forthright’s uncanny ability to transition seamlessly when needed. Both Principia and Pascaline have bone crunching breakdowns, yet they manage to sound completely different from each other. Pascaline shows off the technical prowess of guitarists Nick Llerandi and Billy Anderson and delivers a jazzy vibe. Meanwhile, Principia features what may be the heaviest breakdown of the collection of new songs, yet it masterfully blends eerie piano melodies from keyboardist Kevin Theodore into the background.

While all of Ever Forthright’s new songs are great, Latency and Tendencies is a tour de force. All of the different styles from the new songs come together in a way that I didn’t think was possible. The song features spacy electronic grooves, sick off-tempo breakdowns, precise jazzy melodies, and technical guitar sweeps that are all focused around a central melody. One would think that with this many styles featured in a single song, the music would sound chaotic and disorganized. Yet, it doesn’t. It’s an unbelievable feat that has to be heard to be believed.

Ever Forthright are quickly becoming masters. They have a natural ability to blend a wide range of styles and concoct an amazing display of technical genius. Each and every one of the band-members has incredible potential and talent. All they need to do is find a sick vocalist to meld with these amazing instrumentals, and they’ll have themselves my possible album-of-the-year to date.

I’m not sure which is a bigger travesty: the disaster that is the Gulf oil spill or the fact that these guys STILL aren’t signed. Here’s a message to record labels everywhere: WAKE THE FUCK UP.

With that, I wish all the members of this band the best of luck and ask them to please come tour in Seattle soon! I can’t imagine what it would be like to see these guys live.

I don’t often give a band this much praise unless I really mean it. You all owe it to yourselves to check these guys out — so here again is the link to their Myspace page. Or you can listen to “Latency and Tendencies” right here:

Ever Forthright: Latency and Tendencies

Or, you can download the entire collection of instrumentals via the link below, which the band has just published on its Facebook page:

DOWNLOAD