10 September 2014

Symfinity - Apocrypha, EP review

Symfinity's 2014 album release is their second. I'm yet to hear their first record, but I can't wait to, 'cause this is fantastic! Symphonic Pop Rock. That's a legit genre right?



Well this is something new to me. And hopefully new to you too. And you know what? It's bloody brilliant!

The first song opens with some absolutely beautiful flowing piano playing. The chord changes are incredibly uplifting and the textures really make this a fantastic opening track. It continues to build and build throughout the whole four and a half minutes. The lyrics are inspiring and the musician in me is just sat here singing harmonies. There is so much opportunity for harmony here! I love it. It's almost like a show tune but without the unnecessary added cheesiness. Powerful vocals, great musicality and overall a pleasure to listen to. And those flutes in the bridge... Shivers!

Okay moving on...

I urge you to listen to, and I mean really listen to (don't get too distracted by the fantastic orchestral sounds) the lyrics to 'No More'. It's powerful stuff I tell you. Powerful.

What makes this record so refreshing is that it's real. So many musicians have had the power to recreate the sounds of the orchestra with just the touch of a few keys on their home computer which is great, I in no way intend to downplay how fantastic that is, there's some incredible stuff out there and I've been lucky enough to feature and review some of that. But this is raw. This is the real deal. This is actual, tangible, acoustic, incredibly well played instruments of the orchestra. I love it! But I also love that the piano plays such a prominent part in the majority of the music because it gives it this feel of accessibility to those who have perhaps only heard the sounds of a symphony in film scores. This connects the music with other genres like pop and rock which are much more familiar to the modern listener.

I'm getting all critical now. Let's switch directions...

The track that the CD is titled after is a lovely short piece of music that acts as a good transition into the much more rock sounding track Overrun. Things start to get real loud real quickly here. I'm feeling it man, I'm feeling it!

And then we drop back down again to a truly heartfelt song: Growing Younger. You can watch the video above. It's great, check it out!

I knew at the first second of this record that I had something good here to review. I'm giving a big fat five stars to this baby and I cannot wait to hear more.


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