Okay, trying to summarize this album without saying "If you're still AWAKE at the end of this one, you must be a true fan"; would be impossible, so forgive me. Har de har. I'll put it like this; If this was a short-form EP, I would have really dug it. Unfortunately, it isn't.

AWAKE is a sort or Progressive Metal / Post Metal type band from the good ol' U.K. Pip pip! They kind of sound like a cross between DREAM THEATER and SONATA ARCTICA, but not quite as interesting. I don't want to be too hard on them, because I do think they are a good band overall. They just have a tendency to really overdo it. "Forever More" is their second album under the name AWAKE. They had previously released 3 other albums under the name HUMANITY.

The arrangement and production sounds great, and the performances are solid. I found myself really enjoying it for the first few tracks, but then it just wouldn't end. Around the time I got to the mellow track "Closing The Doors", I started to get pretty bored with it. By the time I finally got to the title track at the end, I couldn't wait for it to be over with. At 50 minutes, this record isn't abnormally long in actual running time. However, the music starts to become so long and drawn out, and with such a lack of variety; that it feels like I've been listening to it for 3 hours.

The other gripe I have with this record is the lead vocalist Simon Shedwell; who isn't a bad singer by any means, but he goes seriously overkill with the vocals. This gets really annoying. After a while, I don't even hear lyrics anymore; just a bunch of OOOOOOAAHHHH HOOOOAAAAHHHHOOOOOHHHHH. Making me say "Jeez man, give it a rest, will ya?!". "Go on "American Idol" (or whatever the British equivalent might be) if you want to do that kind of thing. I'd like to hear a riff or two between all of the "bow before my vocal chords" demonstration. No offense, but damn.

The bottom line is, as much as I might harp on them; AWAKE is a very talented band. It's apparent that they worked very hard on this record, and I can appreciate that. What would have made the big difference, is if they had shortened the album to just the first half. If that were the case; I would have found it to be much more enjoyable, and would have probably given it a 7 or an 8. As it is though, I think this is a great effort, but not a great album.

They are charging about 9 Dollars/8 Euros for this Album, and I think that's a bit much. If it was $5; I'd say go for it. At $9, I would recommend visiting the Myspace page first and picking out a few songs you like and just buying those for a dollar a piece. It's probably much better that way.