I’ve heard some excellent EPs over recent months and here’s another one. Forlorn Chambers is a young band from Finland that superbly brings together several styles that sounds like the work of some very inspired individuals. Death metal vocals, black metal and doom unites into a dark, finely crafted, euphoric sound that shouldn’t work but absolutely does. The first track is very black metal and effortlessly catchy. The vocals sound like they’ve come from a wind pipe that’s been flayed alive as we listen – hoping he’s going to survive the next three tracks before his esophagus splits. Coming right from the torso, they had me a little stumped at first and didn’t seem to fit the music. By the chorus I’d changed my opinion completely.
The track is not complicated but like all good black metal gathers itself in repetition and finally brings in an emotive surge in the second half. Not too over the top, just casually, almost swaggeringly done. The second of the three tracks was the killer for me, slicing some wailing doom lead guitars into the pot and bringing in some subtle, clean singing in the background lifting the chorus of ‘We Hail The Ones Who Fall’ with an almost hymn-like chant. The third track is more of a death-doom affair showing how the Forlorn Chambers sound can be manipulated but still maintaining a repetitive simplicity. Three tracks with a very clearly defined sound that each achieves something different.
As is so often the case with EPs this good it’s annoyingly short. At 14 minutes it’s just long enough to realise you’re onto something special before the silence descends and the magic dissipates. The question is always whether this is the best there is to offer or a sign of something even greater to come. But it’s all done with such effortless grace combined with measured brutality that I can only assume there is something burning inside these guys to produce something that is so warm and haunting at the same time.
This obviously comes recommended and it’s good to hear something sounding so fresh even if it was all too brief. All I can say is that I’m looking forward to the full release and let’s hope it’s not too long in coming.
(8/10 Reverend Darkstanley)
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