Sinctuary

Symphorce – Unrestricted Review

Symphorce – Unrestricted Review

Ah, another release from metal vocal monster Andy B. Franck’s “other” band Symphorce. While most in the metal world are familiar with his work with Brainstorm, Symphorce is his more “cult” band where he explores musical styles and moods that wouldn’t fit with the straight ahead metal style of his primary outfit. Over the years Symphorce has released some albums that were actually superior to those of Brainstorm and I often wondered why they weren’t better known, especially since Mr. Franck is one of the better vocalists in metal today. Generally Symphorce hasn’t strayed too far from the style Brainstorm employs but they have tended to toss in more prog elements and try more diverse sounds (but much less so than his original band Ivanhoe). That pattern continues here on their seventh album Unrestricted. However, this is a slight step back in quality from previous Symphorce albums and feels a little rushed and incomplete. Fortunately, the shortcomings in songwriting are at least partially overcome by the vocal efforts of Mr. Franck.