Formed in 1997 by Niclas Frohagen, and started of as a one man project.
The instruments that this man is familiar with: guitar, bass, programming, synthesizer, and vocals (both growled and clean) After a short time looking for members without any success, Niclas decided that Forest Of Shadows would stay a one man project till other member showed up. As a one man project Niclas wrote some songs and recorded his stuff. Not long after that the story of session members, lazy member, unskilled members and unfitting members turns just as sad as the lyrics ad song writing of the band. A huge load of people join on all kinds of instruments, but none of them stay long. The longest staying member is Micce Andersson, who adds an interesting element to the band, he plays violin. Besides that drums, guitar and keyboard. Micce stayed in the band form 1998 till 2002.
The backbone of the band is and always was Niclas. Niclas had troubles with bankrupt labels and the story of the band is quite doomy. But after a long struggle his first full length was released on the 17th of November on the finnish Firedoom label.
Forest of Shadows:
Niclas Frohagen (Guitar, Bass, Vocals, Synthesizer, Programming)
Discography:
The Silent Cry Demo, 1998
Under The Dying Sun Demo, 1998
Promotion CD Demo, 1999
Under The Dying Sun [Promo] Demo, 2000
Where Dreams Turn to Dust Demo, 2000
Where Dreams Turn To Dust EP, 2001
Departure Full-length, 2004
Total playing time: 01:01:15
As you can see the tracks on this album are very long giving a very hypnotic and depressive feeling to the album. If you have listened to doom records before you will notice, that this album stays away from a lot of standardized doom concepts. The first unusual thing on this album is the programmed drums, which can sound a bit mechanical (especially on the first track). The programmed drumming is quite obvious on the empty acoustic passages, on the heavy parts it's hardly noticeable, and near the end of the album the drumming seems to improve a great deal. The drumming isn't bad, not at all, but it's unusual and might take you a few listens to get used to. The use of electric piano is something that I would call slightly unusual too. And at first I thought it was unfitting, cause EP gives of a modern vibe. But the instrument gives of a dark and melancholic sound without being unfitting or cheesy. One other note of not conforming to usual doom concepts: There is a crap load of acoustic guitars, it?s really amazing actually, often playing simple loops but very fitting, and very dark The acoustic guitars fit in so well, I think Opeth fans will like the acoustic passages. The acoustic parts have very nice clean vocals over top, Niclas has a very emotional voice. His voice sounds very young, opposed to other vocalists, The only thing that?s a shame is that he doesn?t use his beautiful voice to it?s fullest. The singing is low to middle on the entire album, but it would be great if he would hit some high notes from time to time. I?m quite sure he is capable of this. After the long acoustic passages there are very doomy slow riffs that hit you like a ton of bricks. This is so hypnotic, all of the sudden the clean and empty sound that was present in the acoustic passages is gone and there are muddy riffs that are as dense fog. The low growled vocals on top of the muddy riffs are excellent The vocal melodies are very addictive, and fit both the clean riffs and the distorted. The use of a classical flute on the last track adds to the dark overall feeling of this album.
This relatively new artist gives us a release that is original cause he wanders of the beaten path laid out by other doom artists years ago.
And therefore I think you should be watching this man, yes, this one man brought us an original and renewing album, and breaks through a lot of concepts taken for granted within this genre. Im looking forward to future releases and I hope I got you guys interested in this band.
This artist is certainly recommended for fans of:
Katatonia (FoS recorded a cover of Katatnonia"' s Rainroom)
Opeth
Candelmass
Satyricon
My Dying Bride
Isis
Explosions In The Sky
Final Rating:
3,5/5
