Back in 2002 Forest of Shadows left me astonished with their dark melancholic doom metal, which for better but most likely worse came at a most unpleasant time in my life. In 2004 the band released their debut album, ‘Departure,’ which had been highly anticipated by me, but for whatever reason I kept having trouble getting into it. I think initially it was due to the lack of the violin and flute that had graced the previous MCD, but listening to this album now I’m really not sure why I didn’t like it since it’s an outstanding album.
Departure was played and composed entirely by Niclas Frohagen, and maybe it was for the best since Niclas constantly had trouble finding a solid line-up since the bands onset in the late 90’s. In any case the music of Forest of Shadows is filled with slow doomy riffs that exhale melancholy and mourning, as well there are some darkwave-ish electronic beats, keyboards, and light piano work alongside both aggressively growled vocals and cleanly sung Gothic-ish singing. Five songs are present, but the album exceeds the hour mark by just a few minutes. The album reaches its high points with the songs, ‘November Dream,’ which has one of the most sorrowful sounding main riffs ever, and, ‘Bleak Dormition’ is also stunning despite being an instrumental. ‘Open Wound’ & ‘Departure’ are also quite memorable.
Since re-discovering this album last autumn, I’ve played it a lot and I am most definitely still scratching my head in puzzlement when I try to figure out what it was that left me unsatisfied initially. If you enjoy any sort of dark depressive melodic doom metal then I certainly have to recommend this album to you as well as the previous mentioned MCD, ‘Where Dreams turn to Dust.’
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