Marblebog
Forestheart

So here’s a re-issue of the 2005 cassette only third release from the Hungarian one man project comprised of Vorgrov, and after doing some research I was pretty excited to hear this supposedly folky take on one man drony, doomy ambient and atmospheric black metal.

Well, its OK I suppose. It’s primal and grim with long songs and segments of shrill, atonal traditional raw black metal littered with spurts of either scrawling doomy moments or ethnic ambience and foresty hues, but that’s about it as its hardly the unearthed, folk heavy take on the genre, classic I was hoping for.

A new layout and artwork do little to disguise the fairly uninspired, repetitive nature of the music-even for 2005 this is pretty rudimentary stuff and the one man black metal scene, even if from Hungary surely has more to offer. Those that simply love the genre and lap up its middle/lower tier acts or so called obscure or kult and rare gems and discoveries (read: reissues now the genre has blown up) such as Fear of Eternity, Apostulum, Ensepulchred, Striborg , N.I.L, I Shalt Become, Necronoclast, Wrath of the Weak and such might get into this, but personally its far from being a must have supposedly legendary re-issue.

Though more organic than some of his frosty, more depressing peers, this is still pretty bland stuff and only the occasional acoustic segment (“I am the Forest Heart”, “Howling of Purity”) amid the painful rasping and scrawling guitars, keeps it listenable, though it does avoid the ambient overload and use of hokey synths (with the exception of lengthy and darker “Closing”) preferring a more Burzum/Wyrd delivery of the hypnotic, murky and dank atmospheres. Truth is though, as hard as I tried to focus on the material, the album’s middle section of “Tempest Never Calming Down” and “Flame of Wisdom” simply passed by without out me even noticing-a sure sign of musical boredom.

The truth is there is simply better stuff out there in the genre, and even though die hard fans might appreciate this re-issue, it’s simply filler until the new Leviathan surfaces and reclaims the genre back from the hordes of pretenders.

[Visit the band's website]
Written by Erik T
February 4th, 2008

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