Info
- Band(s): Forgotten Tomb
- Label(s): Agonia Records
- Release Format(s): 12" vinyl, Cassette, CD
- Release Year: 2024
- Review Date: February 20, 2025
- Author(s): FelixS
Okay, let’s throw the cat among the pigeons. Forgotten Tomb is, hands down, the best Italian metal band. That indeed includes the respected Opera IX, the much overrated Bulldozer and Death SS, the good but with mediocre albums clad Mortuary Drape or Necrodeath. And of course bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse, Putridity or Hideous Divinity do not even deserve a mention.
Having set that straight it must be said that the last fifteen years Forgotten Tomb has not really released anything outstanding. All albums from ‘Under Saturn Retrograde’ (2011) onwards are solid at best with some highs and some lows. Obviously, the band’s best period was between 2002’s ‘Songs To Leave’ and ‘Negative Megalomania’ from 2007 – I don’t count ‘Vol. 5: 1999-2009’ as a proper album. That was a period characterised by stunning creativity that redefined the whole ‘Depressive Black Metal’ genre and gave it new depth. Herr Morbid proved that that genre does not have to consist purely of long-winded riffs and monotonous song writing. In short: Forgotten Tomb gave the genre a boost and an attractive flair that it had not known until then and, in doing so, completely reinvented it.
On the albums that followed, the experimentation with other genres began, with Traditional Doom and even Stoner in particular making an appearance – the artwork of the just-mentioned and somewhat superfluous ‘Vol. 5: 1999-2009’ that refers to the cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Vol. 4’ speaks volumes in this regard. The equally unnecessary and even dreadful tribute split CD to GG Allin with their compatriots from Whiskey Ritual is the absolute nadir of Herr Morbid and consorts’ experimentalism. While none of the releases over the past 15 years reached those lows and there were even some pretty decent albums in between, the feeling lingered that the band had lost its musical compass a bit. But as it goes with old loves, you never quite let them go and you are usually remarkably forgiving in the process. So it is with us, Forgotten Tomb and myself.
‘Nightfloating’ then, the band’s tenth instalment, (not the ninth nor the eleventh as I have seen it mentioned), is an unexpected return to form. After the first spins I had to pinch myself a few times to make sure I was not dreaming. It turned out to be an album that clearly harkens back to the band’s treasured early work. Alright, I did not really pinch myself, and I did know I wasn’t dreaming, but I was pleasantly surprised by what can really be considered a grand return to the band’s roots.
From the opening title track and the following ‘A Chill That You Can’t Taint’ could easily have been from the Forgotten Tomb’s third album. And there are more tracks that remind of the musical days of yore, but at the same time it is clear that the band has progressed massively in the two decades that lies in between. The song writing skills of the band has never been something that had to be questioned, but the steps they have taken in terms of balancing the dark riffs with the outstanding melodies is striking. Especially on the aforementioned ‘A Chill That You Can’t Taint’ and ‘A Despicable Gift’ the band treats us on some excellent solo guitars that truly enhances the music and takes it up a few levels when it comes to musical ingenuity and overall maturity.
The band has never been free of doomy elements, in fact their initial sound was way more based on Katatonia’s first album than anything thoroughly Black Metal, so that they would eventually venture further into those musical territories was not much of a surprise. Yet, while ‘Nightfloating’ feels much closer to what I would consider the band’s core business, that doomy spirit is still very much around, but intentionally or not, it doesn’t come much in the form of Black Sabbath-ridden Stoner riffs. In hindsight, Forgotten Tomb’s previous album, ‘Nihilistic Estrangement’ was already step in this direction, but the band has now filed off the last burrs and the whole thing now feels delightfully familiar again.
Again, without wanting to take anything away from the albums that appeared after 2007’s ‘Negative Megalomania’, it definitely feels that ‘Nightfloating’ would be the most fitting follow-up to that album. In the intervening period, no band has been able to fill the go that Forgotten Tomb left behind. ‘Depressive Black Metal’, if you want to call it that, has bounced back into the mostly bland guise it knew in the early 00’s. It is therefore all the more refreshing to hear Forgotten Tomb pick back up to their familiar sound into which it has simultaneously managed to weave the accumulated experience of the past 20 years. As far as I am concerned, Herr Morbid & Co. show here once again that they are the uncrowned kings of the Italian metal landscape.
Forgotten Tomb
- Country: Italy
- Style: Black Metal, Doom Metal
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Spotify, Youtube
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Agonia Records
- Country: Poland
- Style: Black Metal, Death Metal
- Links: Homepage, Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp, Youtube
