Old Forest
Tales Of Sussex Weald (part 3 – Andredsweald) ()
Wydane przez Death to Music ProductionsRok wydania Kraj UKNapisał Wouter7
There are numerous reasons why I like England. They have a glorious past, and are home to many of the greatest myths and legends. Not only did the country spawn some of the best extreme metal bands (Bal-Sagoth, Bolt Thrower, Desecration, Iron Maiden, Mithras), classic rock (Dire Straits, Genesis, Pink Floyd) – it is also the home of TV personalities as Gordon Ramsay and Nigella Lawson. When it comes right to it, though, I’d rather cuddle up to the likes of Rosie Whiteman, Carole Hunt, Melissa Debling, Stacey Massey or Daisy Watts. Anyway, Old Forest were one of the many British black metal acts that sprung up in the late ‘90s when Cradle Of Filth suddenly became popular. The most known member of this unit is James Fogarty, who was briefly a hot item with his band Ewigkeit and currently is also in that other much talked about band, The Meads Of Asphodel. "Tales Of Sussex Weald" (it compiles the entire trilogy) is sort of a headscratcher. On the one hand you got the interesting lyrical concept of local legends and myths, but on the other hand there’s the absolutely dreadful production values. Whether they aimed specifically at this lo-fi sound I’ll leave in the middle, but it is absolutely detrimental to what, in essence, is a very promising musical package. The basis is midpaced black metal with heavy reliance on folk instrumentation, which is complemented by all sorts of nature effects and narrative vocals. It isn’t straight-up folk black metal, but not pure black metal either. I suppose it floats somewhere between folk -, pagan – and black metal. Anyway, semantics aside the idea is commendable. I just can’t understand why Old Forest decided to go for this particular set of production values. In conclusion, I can only say check this record out and decide for yourself. You’ll have to deal with the shoddy production values.
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