Further Seems Forever releases new album, shows no evolution

Just last week, the rock group Further Seems Forever kickstarted their tour with The Starting Line, Days Away and Jamison Parker. Their tour will encompass all major cities in the U.S. including Atlanta at the Masquerade, where they stopped over and performed on Wednesday.

Originating from Pompano Beach, Fla., the band was actually formed from members of three groups - Strongarm, Shai Hulud and Vancant Andy ' s. With Chris Carrabba initially as the lead singer, they had recorded a song in the renowned Emo Diaries compilation.

However, with Carrabba moving on to form the group Dashboard Confessional, Further Seems Forever found former Affinity front man Jason Gleason to take over vocals and provide lyrics for their future albums. Since then, they have released two albums: The Moon is Down in March 2001 and Hide Nothing in August of last year.

The group consists of newly found Jon Bunch from Sense Field on the vocals, Josh Colbert and Derick Cordoba on the guitars, Chad Neptune on the bass and Steve Kleisath on the drums.

Known for powerful pop and strong Christian lyrics, Further Seems Forever ' s Hide Nothing has, in my opinion, very little to offer for its fans or for that matter, anyone who appreciates rock. First of all, the CD was too short - only around 30 minutes. Moreover, it seemed as if the album, though released three years after The Moon is Down, did not prove to be a single notch higher than any of their previous albums.

However, given the band ' s immense diversity, all of its songs might as well have ended up as a collection of haphazard elements of music put together in just 10 tracks. But they managed to end up giving the album a harmonious whole that merged all the rock singles together.

The group has continued with punk-rock fashion, although they claim to be making a move toward being a more pop-orientated band. The group managed to stick to their roots on this album, though, and delivered as any fan would have expected.

Overall, the album was a little disappointing for those fans out there with high expectations of the band to produce a more mature album supported by strong lyrics. It is not something worth listening to more than once.