Forklift Elevator: Borderline

Mushing together classic metal, thrash and a punk attitude, Italy's Forklift Elevators arrive to assure us that all the really good band names have been well and truly accounted for. However if the band's name suggests few ideas in the inspiration pool, then the short sharp blast of debut effort Borderline muddies the water further. Hence with well executed ideas that struggle for originality or true cohesion, you're left with the choice to either soak it up and enjoy it for what it is – a decent, but unspectacular debut – or build up a level of confusion as to whether singer Enrico Martin wants to be a punk kid, or a James Hetfield impersinat-ahhhhh. The slow steady and surprisingly acoustic driven "Overload" a prime example of the latter, as opener "Misery" illustrates the former. Well I say opener, but actually the imaginatively named "Intro" (an indication of the level of boundary pushing you can expect to find on Borderline) takes that honour, a slowed down piece of speech proving indecipherable and utterly dispensable.

However for all the obvious faults here, the likes of "Borderline" shows Forklift Elevator in a more assured light, a spiralling, powering punch of drums much more vital and energetic. Add in the mid paced chug of "Struggle Of Life" and what becomes apparent is that the F-E's are a far better out and out thrash band than much of their material really gives them the opportunity to show. "Arey" adds a classy melodic side to the ever evolving bag of tricks and while Martin struggles to hit the notes he's striving for, there's an endearingly naive charm in evidence.

Oddly Borderline is an album which starts slowly (in terms of excitement rather than tempo), before growing towards its conclusion into a release that does undoubtedly show promise. However while there is enough to easily save it from the scrapyard, there's a lot of work for Forklift Elevator to do before they can consider going up in the world...

Track Listing
1. Intro
2. Misery
3. Blackout
4. The Skin
5. Overload
6. Damn Bug
7. Struggle of Life
8. Arey
9. Cathedral
10. The Fog
11. Dream Reaper

Added: January 9th 2016
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Forklift Elevators online
Hits: 1361
Language: english

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