Symfinity: Intangible Dreams

On and off has the relationship between classical and rock music been, with the results varying widely in standard. Some acts, namely Deep Purple (well the late Jon Lord anyway), Scorpions, Therion and Lucifer Was have handled the awkward marriage with great skill and grace. Others, most notably Metallica, have made a dog's dinner of it, ending up with something cumbersome and forced, adding no real value to either style attempting to be adapted. Unfortunately, while not quite that poor, Symfinity certainly struggle to come up with something that will excite lovers of rock music, or indeed classical nuts.

The basic premise of Seann Branchfield who steers Symfinity is to combine classical music, with a special focus on flute and piano, with alternative rock, stating Nightwish, Trans Siberian Orchestra and John Williams as inspiration. However the band's debut release Intangible Dreams neither captures the energy of Nightwish, the drama of TSO, or the soaring, memorable themes Williams creates. Instead it all sounds a bit like mid-paced latter day Moody Blues humming along to Broadway tunes. All a bit nice. There's no bite, or verve, making the twelve tracks all sound similar and truth be told uninspired. What doesn't help is that Branchfield isn't a great singer. Yes he has that alt-rock whine that seems so popular with the kids down to a tee, but staying in tune and holding notes is a struggle, which makes the other instruments fight to even sound in tune, or synch with each other. Nothing much distinguishes one song from another and while "Never Quite Always" ups the tempo, or "Intermezzo" is a little more guitar based than the rest of the bunch, not even these moments grab the attention on what is an incredibly polite offering.

Live, Symfinity may well be a different proposition altogether, but Intangible Dreams ends up sounding like one of those CDs you buy when you come out of a show you've really enjoyed, only to discover that without the live experience, the music sounds very flat indeed.

There's a huge amount of time, effort and passion gone into creating this album, it is just a real shame that the end results are so lacklustre.

Track Listing
1. Overture
2. Cries of Humanity
3. It's Not Just Me
4. Point of Refraction
5. Now Free
6. I Follow You
7. Intermezzo
8. A Time To Breathe
9. Never Quite Always
10. Court You Slowly
11. Night Through Day
12. My Hidden Manor

Added: October 27th 2012
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Symfinity on Bandcamp
Hits: 1788
Language: english

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