All of the better bands from Holland’s late nineties wave of female-fronted goth-ish metal bands had something special, often rendering them far less gothic than they were given credit for. After Forever’s debut album ‘Prison Of Desire’ seemed to suggest they only had one of the better singers of the genre to offer in the shape of Floor Jansen. ‘Decipher’ proved me wrong. By leaving the atmospheric gothic doom metal behind in favor of a more interesting blend of symphonic power metal and progressive metal, After Forever ended up sounding far more dynamic and powerful than many of their worldwide peers.

It would not be fair to compare After Forever to the other bigger names in the Dutch gothic scene at the time, but I always thought The Gathering pulled off the atmospheric take on the genre far better on ‘Nighttime Birds’ than After Forever did on ‘Prison Of Desire’. Because of that, the change on ‘Decipher’ was a welcome one. As soon as the first power metal-like opening riff to ‘Monolith Of Doubt’ starts, you already know you are in for something else. That and the fact that Floor Jansen sounds far more convincing when she can alternate her soprano voice with more conventional rock and pop vocals.

Musically, ‘Decipher’ is still quite complex, but even the songs that go through the largest number of changes have a fairly pleasant flow. This is what makes ‘Decipher’ deserving of the progressive label, in my opinion. There aren’t a whole lot of odd time signatures and the riffs sound closer to power metal and traditional heavy metal than anything else once you mentally strip away the classy orchestrations, but the shifts in the songs are really cleverly written. The aforementioned ‘Monolith Of Doubt’ goes through more changes in its three and a half minutes than some prog rock songs in twenty.

While all the songs on ‘Decipher’ are good – only the second ballad ‘Imperfect Tenses’ rubs me the wrong way – my preference admittedly goes out to the more riff-driven songs, such as the vaguely Arabic-sounding midtempo stomper ‘My Pledge Of Allegiance #1 -The Sealed Fate-‘, the rapidly galloping ‘Forlorn Hope’ and the incredibly dynamic epic ‘Estranged -A Timeless Spell-‘. ‘My Pledge Of Allegiance #2 -The Tempted Fate-‘, while still rather riff-heavy, is a good example of After Forever polishing their more atmospheric side a bit. Even the less renowned songs, such as ‘Emphasis’ and especially ‘Zenith’ are really good.

Looking back, it’s incredible how much progress After Forever made in only slightly over a year between their first two albums. While their later albums are nothing to scoff at either, ‘Decipher’ is easily the songwriting triumph of the collaboration between Floor Jansen and guitarists Sander Gommans and Mark Jansen, the latter would leave the band in order to start Epica before touring for the album even commenced. ‘Decipher’ is truly the album that proved After Forever was more than just another Dutch band with a female singer, excellent as she is. Certainly one of the top five Dutch metal albums of its era.

Recommended tracks: ‘My Pledge Of Allegiance #1’ -The Sealed Fate-‘, ‘Estranged -A Timeless Spell-‘, ‘Monolith Of Doubt’, ‘Zenith’