It has been a while, hasn't it. I haven't really been active on this blog for several months now, mainly due to work commitments and all kinds of events cropping up here and there, but no reason to dwell, I'm back now and that's what matters!
And what better way to start 2015 (mid-way through January no less!) by writing a review of a band who I feel deserve recognition for their talent, their originality and their pure, mind-blowing awesomeness! The band I'll be reviewing today is the Leeds black metal outfit, A Forest of Stars.
A Forest of Stars, unlike most black metal bands, take musical influences from psychedelic and prog, mixing them together in harrowing ballads that are as morbid as they are beautiful. Flutes dance around the guitars in exuberance, who in turn make way for the silence in which the violins play a solemn note. Such ballads rise higher and higher, only for it all to come crashing down, a finale most heart-stopping every time. Even their image deviates from the norm, jumping back to the Victorian era rather than the middle-ages, casting their rather dramatic performances in the smog-cloaked light of industrialisation, the sounds buzzing relentlessly, high on the opium served in the tea within their Gentleman's Club of motley Victorian musicians. Their discography to date spans three albums, with a fourth expected release due out in February this year, all of which are surprisingly different from the last.
The Gentleman's Club circa 1892
The albums chart an interesting progression thematically, lyrically and indeed, sonically, building upon the raw black metal sound that is fundamental to every release, but adding twists and turns unpredictable, which makes the forthcoming album, Beware the Sword You Cannot See, an exciting release sure to build upon the previous foundations. But where did it all begin?
The Corpse of Rebirth (2008)
In 2008 their first album, The Corpse of Rebirth was released to much critical acclaim for its crushing darkness performed in true, blackened desperation, and yet embellished with the beauty of classical sections. Conceptually, the album dealt with the myth of creation, the tracks following a logical sequence as seen below. Long songs, repetition and slow build-ups effectively brought emotion to the forefront, with lead vocalist Curse's voice roaring the deepest death-throes from the very bottom of God's cauldron, and screeching the most nerve-grating cries of despondency seemingly so faraway, somewhere across the void in which the album seems to have been recorded. Paradoxically met with the peace of flute and violin at the skilful hand of Katheryne, Queen of the Ghosts, the album had its more pleasant moments too. A solid debut release, but they were only just getting started.
The Corpse of Rebirth (2008)
1. God
2. Female
3. Male
4. Earth & Matter
5. Microcosm
My personal favourite track: Either God or Earth & Matter
Opportunistic Thieves of Spring (2010)
Their second album, Opportunistic Thieves of Spring, aspired for even greater things, the six tracks listed as chapters of a dark story, the six thieves launching their attack on the world. The songs drain colour, reduce the world to ash, destruction bringing the guitars thick and heavy, laden with drums to to the fore. Curse's vocals are once again the perfect bringer of sorrow mixed with fearful desperation. The Victorian side of their music however rears itself more readily in this album, with tracks like Summertide's Approach and its soft, upbeat introduction complete with a different violin sound that feels like it belongs in a comedic number, almost out of place in the depression of Raven's Eye View before it. The length of the tracks once again take the album to a whopping 73 minutes in length, their longest release with the exception of The Corpse of Rebirth 2011 re-release, which featured a sixth additional live track. The re-issue is over 1 hour and 15 minutes in length, so if nothing else, you certainly get your money's worth with A Forest of Stars!
Opportunistic Thieves of Spring (2010)
1. Sorrow's Impetus
2. Raven's Eye View
3. Summertide's Approach
4. Thunder's Cannonade
5. Starfire's Memory
6. Delay's Progression
My personal favourite track: Summertide's Approach
A Shadowplay for Yesterdays (2012)
Their third album however is a truly remarkable achievement. Entitled A Shadowplay for Yesterdays, the release spans ten tracks of a considerably shorter length, (plus a few bonus ones on some releases,) but it didn't stop the album being one of my favourite releases of 2012. Featuring an unprecedented amount of Victorian style, some synthesised music components, combined with more male-female vocal duets, the album pushed the psychedelic side of the band's talents and somehow managed to forge something more accessible than the previous two releases, but just as heavy where it counted, pleasing both die-hard metal fans and non-metal fans alike. The diversity here is astounding, feeling more steampunk than Victorian at times. The concept this time around focuses on something of an Antichrist character, his exploits through his mind twisted beyond repair, you the listener drugged on the hallucinogen served in the Club's tea! The story is brutal, excellently written and beautifully crafted as always, the hallucination unfolding before the listener like a theatrical play of old. The spoken words on the first track, Directionless Resurrectionist, fit the fearful, hate-filled descriptions of the chief character, miserable and vile: Carrion Crow, and so throws us head-first into a story dark yet brilliant with the light of progress.
His exploits are described in luscious detail, the theatrical songwriting improving on previous releases while the average song length forces the band to move away from their 10-minte-plus norm of writing. They work fantastically with whatever length is required, from the behemoth A Prophet for a Pound of Flesh (the longest track and the only one to cross ten minutes this time,) to Man's Laughter (a perfect mid-album interlude featuring a lost static signal and an almost esoteric synth, the lost feeling epitomised by the single spoken lyric "I don't want to be left behind here.")
Musical excellence is also knocked up a few notches, with Mr John Bishop's (not the comedian!) skills behind the kit of a particularly flexible character, combining the various styles with great skill and aplomb. Guitarist Henry Hyde Bronsdon's talents work in perfect tandem with the rest of the ensemble, the sounds unusual at times and apocalyptic at the heaviest moments, bringing down the foundations on the stage to rubble like the aspirations of the play's chief character. Katheryne this time uses her violin skills for much, much more than morbid notes and beautiful sections, (though these too do make a re-appearance,) but also for fast-paced, jazzy verses that flirt with the guitars both electric and acoustic. The sounds are integrated, flowing, colliding and destroying, making the audience stand to attention in an unprecedented fashion. If nothing else, listen to A Prophet for a Pound of Flesh and watch a live performance: You won't be disappointed at the complexity and excellence of musicianship!
In a final note about the album, I would like to direct you to a music video the band's lighting person designed for the track Gatherer of the Pure. It seems that talent runs throughout all involved with A Forest of Stars and it shows more than anything the band's admirable desire to create more than just great music, but themes and concepts also, to make an image and place it at the forefront of everything they do in true spirit of the genre into which they have made such fantastic contributions over the last few years. I look forward eagerly to Beware the Sword You Cannot See and whatever awesomeness lies in wait.
Official Music Video for Gatherer of the Pure
A Shadowplay for Yesterdays (2012)
1. Directionless Resurrectionist
2. Pray Tell of the Church Fate
3. A Prophet for a Pound of Flesh
4. The Blight of God's Acre
5. Man's Laughter
6. The Underside of Eden
7. Gatherer of the Pure
8. Left Behind as Static
9. Corvus Corona (Part 1)
10. Corvus Corona (Part 2)
11. Dead Love (Bonus track not available on all editions)
My personal favourite: Too many to list, though A Prophet for a Pound of Flesh; Gatherer of the Pure; The Underside of Eden; Pray Tell of the Church Fate and Dead Love are all soft-beautiful-heavy mixers! To enjoy the album to its full potential however, listen to it in full and listen to it again: It get's better with repeated listens.
Beware the Sword You Cannot See will be released on
27th February 1895 (or 2015 if you prefer!)
Thanks for reading!
