Driving music? Chugging guitars? Rock hooks? Decent drumming against generic Hard Rock landscapes? Yep, it's Symphorce. Unrestricted marks the band's seventh album, and while the band had a promising start, the group never really picked up much steam and released albums with some strong, catchy material, and songs that were just cliche and came off very generic, but still somewhat tolerable. Unrestricted, however, really just takes the cake on the overly generic material, and at times just becomes torture to listen to.
Anyone who has heard a recent Symphorce album will know the band has slowly been leaving their Power Metal sound behind, leaning more towards a Hard Rock meets a traditional Heavy Metal feel, just without the Heavy Metal intensity, much like their label-mates At Vance. Unrestricted breaks the Power Metal hold on the group, and while some instances still shine through on the album, it's basically just a collection of tracks that come off more as a mixture of Hard Rock anthems and ballads that only sound heavier then what you might expect from Hair Metal bands of the eighties. "Whatever Hurts" is the prime example of this, taking generic Hard Rock ballad music, though the ringtone-like church organ sound that starts the song off with the cheesiest keyboard hook ever, but with a more emotional vocal performance layered over to make it sound like it's a Power Metal recording. This track isn't that bad in the long run, as is "The Eternal", which finds the same kind of set up to the music, though more along the anthem side of music performance, and has a very slight epic feel to the music with a vocal performance that is done in a lower tone, as if building up to an epic Meat Loaf-esque conclusion, but simply does not deliver.
The major upset outside the generic Rock music is the vocals, but it's a toss up between the production, and the vocals being insanely off key. On previous albums, the higher, more energetic vocal performance sounds fantastic against the driving music, and really becomes one of the stand out traits of Symphorce, but for this release, the vocals are too high pitched on many of the songs when there is more force behind them, and it clashes horribly. It also doesn't help that the production quality on them is horrible and has the vocals at a level that makes it sound like it's about to go into white noise/static-like feedback if there were just a little more heat placed on the vocals. While "The Eternal" focuses on utilizing a softer approach throughout that is somewhat monotone, it works for the chugging anthem-like music, though, as stated, goes nowhere, but that's amazing compared to what is to come. "Until It's Over" has a vocal performance that is simply horrendous and displays both of those issues to the point where the liistener will be racing to hit the skip button before a migrain ensues, which by then is probably too late. But then you have "The Waking Hour" where the vocals work with the song, but again, the production just seems to have them at a very obnoxious level, but still just tolerably enough to sit through. "The Last Decision" is another track where the vocals kill some decent music, especially when played at a decent level as they hit an ear-piercing pitch loud enough to make your ears hurt and actually cringe, much like how a dog's ears react to a one of those dog whistles that are silent to everyone but dogs, and was enough to actually make both of my ears sting with pain and bleed.
Outside "The Eternal", there really isn't anything too special about this release, or anything that genuinely stands out. The only real moment that will cause listeners to take notice is the Progressive sounding music that acts as a bridge a little more then half way through "Visions", then goes into a Techno track three fourths of the way prior to the guitar solo, which sounds horrendous for this release, as well as absolutely out of place. Each song sounds like the track before it, but perhaps with a bridge in a different spot, and maybe on or two small notable changes in the actual composition, though the guitars do show some visable changes. The drumming works, but isn't anything all too fantastic either, generally coming off as just standard Rock music drumming with little effort, but given the traditional chugging and easier guitars, it's almost expected.
Unrestricted is just a horrendous album with one interesting song, which starts the album. After that, this album is just recycled compositions and vocal performances, obnoxious recording qualities that make your ears literally bleed from agony, and all around makes you want to break the disc after the third track. Even the 9-11 based track "The Mindless" can't save it, mostly due to the poor layering job that hinders this entire album and makes this track sound very amateurish, especially with the various news clips from the tragic event being played, but of course the subject matter is just a personal hatred as it is way too soon for bands to compose songs for albums based on such a horrific event, while sounding amateurish and having an abrupt fade out to make it sound that much more tacky, and make money of it. It's just a personal qualm I have, but obviously isn't shared by all. Either way, despite my personal disgust on "The Mindless", Unrestricted is just an album that sinks Symphorce lower down the ladder and solidifies the concept that this is a band that needs to focus on writing unique material for their decent sound, making that decent sound better, or just calling it a day.
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