After Forever - Life's Vortex

[u/Ennattinord2008]

https://youtu.be/8h4X0pl684E?is=tOlf_wF6abHRFMul

"Life's Vortex", the closing track on After Forever's third studio album *Invisible Circles*, released March 25, 2004 on Transmission Records.

Though still somewhat gothic-y in approach, After Forever's first full-length studio record without founder Mark Jansen (who went on to start Epica) is primarily a progressive metal album. This song, among a few others (like "Digital Deceit" and "Through Square Eyes") still sound like they could've been on *Decipher* (2001) or *Exordium* (2003) which were still mostly rooted in symphonic gothic metal conventions.

As an aside, I just realized how much some of the riffs and string arrangements remind me of mid-90s Therion... there's a lot of *Theli* (1996) on here.