My first contact with Italy's Forgotten Tomb was quite a while ago back during the, 'Songs to Leave' era although I never actually got my hands on that debut album. I remember 2002 quite well because it was a rather bleak period in my life where I was hopelessly depressed and struggling in college, I didn't really have any friends and I was on the verge of becoming an alcoholic. I recall at some point during that year I came across Forgotten Tomb and Shining from Sweden and was greatly intrigued by their pessimistic and hopeless views on life and human existence. Forgotten Tomb in particular stuck out because they had some sort of 'suicide contest' going on through their website where they encouraged folks to send in photos of their self mutilations and such with the chance of winning... something, I think. Well, I didn't win, but I'd be happy to show you the scar on my left arm if you'd like.
Coming to some conclusion on this personal rant things would eventually get better for yours truly and other than hearing the bands cover of, 'Nowhere' on the Katatonia tribute, 'December Songs,' I'd all but forgotten about Forgotten Tomb.
Years later I still occasionally find myself craving some dark suicidal music and that lead me back to Forgotten Tomb finally for their most recent release (at the time), 'Vol. 5: 1999-2009,' which is a ten year anniversary compilation that features eleven songs re-recorded in one studio session, although in some cases several songs are combined to form one long medley.
Musically if you're not familiar with Forgotten Tomb they play a type of black/doom metal that seems to shift between funeral dirge paced early Katatonia doom/death metal to occasional black metal blasting with raspy screamed vocals about all things unpleasant in life. What really catches my interest with these songs is that the music is mostly highly melodious in its delivery and although quite bleak and depressing sounding it also has a sense of energy and speed where you can actually bang your head in a mad fury if you so choose too.
Some of the individual songs that really stick out for me are, 'A Dish Best Served Cold,' which is absolutely stunning and I love the way Herr Morbid screams out the title at the beginning of the song (as well as a few others) since it gives it a live sort of atmosphere to the whole recording and at least for me it really makes things more engaging. 'Love's Burial Ground' is also fantastic and 'Spectres Over Venice,' which is from the latest full-length, 'Under Saturn Retrograde' sounds promising as well. The cover of Nirvana's, 'Papercuts' is surprisingly fun too.
The medleys I mentioned earlier are quite admirable too, especially the first song, 'Black Sabbath/Subway Apathy,' which borrows the intro from that classic Sabbath song before diving into Subway Apathy. I'm also quite fond of, 'Disheartenment/Alone/Steal My Corpse,' which combines three great songs into one thirteen minute monster of melodic doom and depression. The same could also be said for, 'Entombed by Winter/House of Nostalgia,' but I really enjoy the first half of, 'Depression/Feedback,' which is actually a Black Flag cover performed in a black metal/punk sort of vein, which is then followed by several minutes of guitar feedback, which probably isn't the wisest choice the band could have made to end this otherwise exciting compilation, but whatever.
Bearing in mind the fact that I don't own any other Forgotten Tomb releases I can say that as a whole, 'Vol. 5: 1999-2009' is just excellent and has completely renewed my interest in a band I almost completely forgot about.
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