Forrest – “Before You Go” [EP]

There has been a flood of 90’s emo revival bands over the last few years and I for one am extremely excited about this new trend. That being said, Before You Go by the UK’s Forrest didn’t really impress me all that much. There were plenty of aspects to the release that I felt had promise, but without the execution that sends chills down your spine. Forrest demonstrates that they are capable of utilizing several hallmarks of the genre with decent song writing on all six tracks. However, the band doesn’t branch out too much sonically or lyrically between each song, which doesn’t allow Before You Go to make much of an impact on the listener.

The band makes good use of several staples of the genre like thick heavy guitars, clean vocals, and emotional lyrics. They manage to create that “wall of sound” effect at some points, however there is never enough change dynamically for that effect to really strike you. Bands like Dinosaur Jr. make that wall of sound so effective by using that loud-soft-loud dynamic, whereas Forrest is always going full force with their heavy guitar assault. Although this can make the songs feel more energetic, for the most part it actually just makes it extremely difficult to tell one song from the other. Overall the they just never venture far and I often found myself tuning the music out.

I also felt the band also sold themselves short vocally; although the vocals were very clean and well sung there is absolutely no variation in the delivery. This made it feel as though they didn’t really care all that much about they were singing about which made it very difficult for me to connect with emotions discussed in the songs. The lyrics tend to be about the usual emo topics of loss, regret, redemption and so on and had some very interesting and powerful lyrics at some points, for example I really enjoyed the line “Turn yourself around – this is my ground” in the song “September”. But for the most part the lyrics on Before You Go felt really cramped thematically and often made use of cliches. This made it difficult for the songs to communicate those feelings of loss and bitterness that the band seemed to be attempting to convey.

I think the main problem with Before You Go is that the band manages to do a lot of things well but, as hard as I looked, I couldn’t find that thing that sets them apart and that makes this EP really memorable. The release is a solid effort with plenty of promise, but there just isn’t anything to really keep you coming back.

Track Listing:

01. Nothing More to Say
02. September
03. Hope
04. Five to Nine
05. Hearts and Minds
06. Forget

Run Time: 13:46
Release Date: April 7, 2012

Check out the album: ‘Before You Go’