Twice Second

The fourth album by Symphorce, 2004's Twice Second, is the culmination of ideas first explored in the German quintet's previous releases. Unlike the majority of their countrymen working in this style, Symphorce have little interest in Scandinavian style death metal; instead, their clear antecedents are Queensryche's progressive tendencies and Iron Maiden's skill at adding the occasional pop hook into their music without ever coming even close to Def Leppard-style cheese. These 11 tunes are relatively concise and free of prog rock noodling, but nearly all of them have the suite-like, multi-part structures and whiplash tempo and time signature changes that are the hallmark of progressive metal. While singer Andy B. Franck occasionally has a tendency to lapse into bombastic bellowing, as on the pummeling "Whatever Hate Provides," he's normally an impressively restrained and natural singer, a rarity in this form of metal. A solid and varied album with much to please even old-school metal fans put off by the punky roar of the death metal merchants, Twice Second portends even better things to come. ~ Stewart Mason