Year : 2012 Genre : Blackened Doom Metal
Label : Cruz Del Sur Music
Origin : Italy
Rating : 7.5 / 10
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I have no clue whether THIS Forgotten Tomb is the same one that has featured the band frontman and his insecurities contained in a bath tube on an early '2000s LP, but, in case it IS the same formation, then it is safe to say that the music has changed a lot since the inception of the "Songs to Leave" album. The content of the "... And Don't Deliver Us From Evil" contribution is a rather eloquent and well constructed flow of easily accessible - yes, I have said it - blackened doom, and, if you think that this very attribute harms the legitimacy of sheer heaviness, then, in my opinion you are purely mistaken. Read more to know more and necessarily desecrate the Forgotten Tomb in the mere process of knowing more about it.
The behavior of time ... uuuugh the music on display submits to a constant agenda to feature legitimate, massive blight riding on a high octane motorcycle with a picture perfect image of where this ensemble wants to go. The disc is focused and maintains straightforward intricacy - one of the BESTS (?) kind in this niche -
throughout. I'm tempted to say that Forgotten Tomb's latest delivery is the Stone Sour of blackened doom, as all the primordial moods and elements are eloquently delivered to sink a soul or preferably more into, yet the album remains impertinently intent AND efficient at conveying safe and sound accessibility. Everything you hear is crystal clear, from a structural point of view, and, hell, everything you hear is real deal sonic pleasantry, although it needs to be said that the limitations of the compositional strategy WILL be revealed and WILL be explored by the LP when scrutinized as whole.
The album starts out like Nirvana's first album "Bleach", I swear to you! The initial motive is super-similar in feeling. Why not? Funnily enough, with its sober structure, interestingly rhythmized chorus and with its climax that demands blackened black metal to submit to U2 grade pop - I think the only thing shittier than shit-unalloyed is U2 - the opening track is "but" a precursors of the things the album will have the capacity to offer at its to-be-revealed-later full face value, as this first track really is kind and tame in character to the very next track, titular "... And Don't Deliver Us From Evil".
The second track is a highlight, and one the album shows top form with. It immediately commanded me to spot all other activities I was doing when I have first listened to it. Funny how the interchanging of two letters can alter a sentence, no? The second track initially weighs in is a brilliant variation on the relentless wall of sound strategy praising the anatomy of a harmonic passage that can smuggle a smile on Beethoven's face any time of the day. When the flow changes from its rampant introduction JUST TO reach a swarming feeling on classic thrash metal registers, the interlude in which the tempo is assuaged, gives sufficient amount of time to organize your shattered psyche into a new, more beneficial pattern, and the reoccurring of the ultra-intensified verse puts it to the test right away. This section, the chorus, with the lyrics ".... and don't deliver us from evil" probably is the least successful segment of the song, in my opinion, in the sense that I want it to be over with, and I want my soul getting chased again by the music instead. This song, with its slower parts, definitely reveals a more pronounced doom metal influence than that which the disc most often cares to express, and it is a great relief when the madness level black metal comes in to submit to doom at 5:58, because, by that time, doom really is doomed, because the ensemble finds no place to make it evolve toward. Doom dies in your hands in seconds if you don't know where to put it.
Third track, "Cold Summer" starts out with a Burzum like black metal (mom, really, mom?) motive that seeks to make you wither away 100 times per second, and, by the time the theme finally changes, it is about to succeed at its previous objective, too. A definite affection for slooooow slooooow slooow blackened doom is observable in the initial section of the song, I dare say that it almost borders on sludge metal, in fact. At 3:45, the sludge character is maintained and gets poured on you for optimum family friendly effect. Not a bad song, but it has a tad more pronounced fixation on diabolic toy music that I can tolerate without having to hide a yawn. At almost fantasy music. The music I'd expect to hear at the court of a highly evil lizard king when he is about to enter the throne room in an Elder Scrolls game. The motive starting from 6:00 tries to extract the song at a high note by colliding an efficient motive with two different harmonic environments Meshuggah "Straws pulled at random" style, but way too much tar and shit is poured on you by THAT time to make you able to exhibit a reaction worth noting by anyone other than your mom.
Apart from its title that promotes activities I will never support, track four, "Let's torture each other" sounds like a mid-tempo quasi-thrash metal filler song WITH a hint - not more - of doom metal, and the piece weighs in in a way to make the disc return to its more intriguing aspect via the very next track. Only ONE thing demands separate mentioning herein, and it pains me that I have to say it here. One of the most efficient and most beautiful melodic hooks of the entire spin is contained in this song. It starts around the 3:30 mark, and develops into a truly beautiful motive. It was a mistake to embed this splendid melodic hook into this filler song, in my opinion. The song's climax sounds like a Guns 'N Roses glam metal breakdown from 1991, and all I can say to THAT, is : what the fuck.
The lyrical themes of the release sometime border on the laughable, too. How about sentiments like "fuck me like if you were fucking death itself!", taken from the very next track, called "Love me like you'd love the death". Well, I thought fucking like fucking death is pure normality, and not something you need to specifically ask for. If you have to, you've been fucking the wrong way all the time. The song itself is a successful blend of Burzum like black metal that intentionally invited to the side of sludge metal, and, while I admit it is a successful track as a sonic structure, it "reeks" the sublime hints at the limitations of the compositional techniques utilized on the disk as a whole.
Track 6, "Adrift" is a good example of how the album tends to proceed : the verse is Burzum, the pre is melodic death metal with a forgiving nature, while the chorus could be a Stone Sour song highly compatible with the bonfire variant of Corey Taylor. There is a nice instrumental section in the song, too, with a Philip Anselmo imitator failing miserably at imitating Philip Anselmo.
You ROOL dem FOOLZ, Phil!
The clearly and easily identifiable audio pattern which is armed with a diligent and elegant catchyness factor, is relatively rampant and successful protagonist on the LP, and I'm not the guy who easily says this, because the existence of the clear sonic thought is the very entity I'm most fervently on the trail of, and am very happy if to spot it at work. Check out the GREAT re-occurring hook in the final track "Nulifying Tomorrow", for another example on these fine audio machinations : an elegant, straightforward guitar melody is served, contained within robust patterns of monumental guitars, and they are simultaneously provoked and assuaged by the central gravitative melody. This isn't the only hook on the song, either : at the climax, another one is on offer, though less prominent than the initial one. The INTENT to take the liberty on occasion to entertain through the repetition of motives worth repeating, permeates the disc nevertheless. Pretty cool stuff, and also a sublime expression of the stuff this site is all about. (Music, you cunt.)
The Forgotten Tomb guys took the fortunate time and diligence in order to be able to come forth with a flow that manages to emerge as a rather delicious dosage of blackened doom almost all throughout, taking the liberty to border-, even encompass the ethos of the melodic on occasion. Melodic metal is NOT necessarily constrained to the singing, obviously. The harmonic passages-, the organic patterns between the motives are essential qualities to reveal melodic and sonic entities that otherwise would be (highly) non-existent. They need to crash with each other to exist, and this is the mere magic that warrants their immortal existence.
Rating : 7.5 / 10
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