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Old Forest - Dagian

Published January 06 2016


*
=Staff's pick

Morwian
Non
Tweoneleoht
Neaht

Genre Ambient/Black Metal
Kobold
Vocals
Tracks 4
Beleth
Guitar
Running time 48 Min.
-
Guitar
Label Avantgarde Music
Beleth
Bass
Release January 11, 2016
Kobro
Drums
Country England
Kobold
Keyboard
Producer Lord Grond
Similar artists Summoning, Winterfylleth

Judging by the cover, London's Old Forest has steered onto a Winterfylleth/Drudkh-inspired folk-influenced black metal path with their third album 'Dagian'. Even though I am not previously acquainted with the band their previous two outputs reportedly consist of orthodox 2nd wave black metal. By the band's name I would have placed them under that moniker as well but probably guessed their country of origin to be somewhere in Eastern Europe.

So how does 'Dagian' actually sound? Well, the Winterfylleth/Drudkh-inspiration is accurate at times, but it is far from the full story. To make it perfectly straight, the conventional black metal reportedly found on its predecessors is quite far gone on 'Dagian'. The core of the entire album is more of an ambient layer that reminds me of a softer version of the folkish passages of Winterfylleth but executed using poorly tuned synthesizers in a Summoning fashion. On top of that are the more outright black metal passages shamelessly cloned from their aforementioned countrymen. These passages are not only second tier, they also tend to fade into the ambient mesh as soon as the listener has an honest chance to maybe start appreciating them.

Floating around all this are some rather shy growls and occasional clean chanting vocals which actually are fairly decent. I do mean floating in its literal sense as the production is a story of its own. I can't for my life figure out what the band/producer/anyone was aiming for, but it is not consistent even for a moment.

The guitar tone seem to change every now and then as does the tone of the ambient base layer. Imagine recording an album randomly in five different studios with five different producers trying to get the same sound. Will you get the same sound? No, you will get five versions of the same sound. Then imagine you use all these sessions and try to mix them into a coherent album, that is the experience 'Dagian' provide. Although this could have created an incredibly suffocating atmosphere with the right music, it is far from the case here. The atmosphere on 'Dagian' is actually solemn and cheerful quite in line with Summoning.

I do not invariably shy from cheerful atmospheres in metal, but it does require something more from the music that brings some kind of force into the listening experience. Old Forest does not provide sufficiently at all in that department and the few enjoyable moments are easily forgettable. The rest of the album, well to sum it up bluntly, is an uninspiring piece of jolly ambient with occasional weak sounding black metal guitar work thrown in. I might recommend this to diehard fans of Summoning, but do not purchase it blindly.

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

5

6

3

3

1

 
Summary



1 chalices of 10 - Tengan


Related links:

www.facebook.com/oldforestofficial