Review Summary: Verb the noun is back with another metalcore EP. No, that was mean. This is actually pretty cool.
Swedish metalcore is hardly the most well known or spread out form of metalcore, but there is still a small number of quite acclaimed Swedish metalcore bands such as Burst for example. Do not be fooled though, because this sounds nothing like Burst and more like American metalcore or perhaps "popular" metalcore. Forgetting the Memories is a very obscure band, and did not have much luck reaching a larger audience with their debut EP called Moments. This time they are back with severely better production and better songwriting in general. Their music can easily be compared with bands such as The Devil Wears Prada or The Ghost Inside with breakdowns, melodic choruses sung using clean vocals and hardcore inspired harsh vocals. While being a band in an oceans of many like them, their standard is a bit higher and on Separate by Time, Forgetting the Memories separate (no pun intended) themselves from the rest by doing much of the same but better. They focus a lot on melody for Separate By Time, which makes it easy to place them into the melodic metalcore tab. Compared to similar bands, FTM purposely lacks in the emo department, with only a few moments of truly "hardcore styled" vocals or an "angsty" nature in general.
Two of the standout tracks are the meaty and catchy Self Resurrector and the heavy and atmospheric Watching the Skies. This EP is, as you might have guessed, not extremely diverse but it is in a way part of the charm. It is still, as stated, just an EP so expectations on diversity should not be exaggerated. The awkwardly named song Never[er]ase is their longest track to date (not really a huge achievement but whatever) and features some pretty sick grooves and the albums only real guitar solo which is more of a semi guitar solo but sweet nonetheless. To the bands credit, all the songs are worthwhile and Separate By Time is undoubtedly consistent. The leap in quality from their first EP to this is inspiring and hopefully they will top Separate by Time with a full-length record in the future.
If you dig some easily digested metalcore with knotty breakdowns and a bunch of well-written riffs, the entertainment value of this short album is very high.
