Uncertain Future is the debut album from Forced Entry, a band I never heard of before. However, I saw it posted on social media and thought that it looked interesting. So… of course I had to explore it. That’s what I do! It starts off pretty heavy and almost immediately it also changes style, or at least tempo which reminds me a little bit of som early Iron Maiden songs. Perhaps from the first or second album – Killers. I’m talking only about the tempo variations though. There’s nothing in common with Iron Maiden musically.
The music leans more toward Thrash Metal though. But.. let me tell you an anecdote about my first encounter with Metallica. This will be a really long parentheses. But back in the day when Kill ‘em All, first came out, a friend got it and listened to it on his walkman. I got a sneak peak listen får 30 seconds or so. I really liked it but I can’t remember which song it was. But, what I’m getting at is that another acquaintance also got a sneak listen for about as long. His reaction? “It sounds like Iron Maiden”. Which of course it didn’t but there are always those things in music that reminds you of something else. It might be variation in tempos or the way certain scales are used.
The Point is, that even if Uncertain Future is certainly early Thrash Metal and Iron Maiden’s first couple of albums were more Punk influenced there are som similarities there, at least in my ears.
Uncertain Future is not superfast Thrash as som of the early attempts by Kreator for instance. And it should not be compared with the Big four of Thrash. But I think that has more to do with the fact that the Big Four of Thrash has better produced albums in their discography. Uncertain Future sounds a bit muddy and I think that’s ok, but it becomes a little less enjoyable. If the sound was clear and the mix was better it would have been easier to find and isolate the really good parts.
Because there are som good parts in there. There might not be loads of recognizable riffs, but everyone cannot be Dave Mustaine or James Hetfield. I think that Uncertain Future is a fine albu. It’s not great but it’s good enough to re-listen once in a while. I’m so glad I found it on Spotify. I cannot say that I’m in love with the vocals, but I seldom are in Metal music. They’re often the weak spot for me. But they work and suits the music!
