Review Summary: Whatever the genre, this is good.
I’ve been to Sweden once before. It’s a nice country. My mum’s family comes from there, so I felt like maybe I belonged. Except I noticed that I do not resemble the Swedish people. I must have missed the Viking genes cause all my beards have been terrible and my muscular physique is lacking/non-existent. But I make up for that with unnecessarily long ramblings about albums no one else cares about.
Sweden and Metalcore to me, are a great match. We have the likes of Dead by April, Amaranthe, Adept, The Unguided and Sonic Syndicate (who at one point were decent). All these bands tend to learn towards a more symphonic/poppy metalcore, which I eat up like my kids eat pancakes for Breaky. 'Forgetting The Memories' do not do this. They are in fact the exact opposite. They lean heavily into Deathcore, so much so that I believe they are a Deathcore band that incorporate 'Metalcore' clean vocals. Make of that what you will but genres and bands are always confusing and debated so I am just sticking these fellas in Metalcore because Deathcore lovers will more than likely complain about the cleans, right?
'Forgetting The Memories' have been plugging away in the Swedish scene since 2010. With 3 Eps and 2 full lengths to their name, I have always wondered why they haven’t reached the heights of many other bands within the overly packed and somewhat stale Metalcore Genre. They have everything that is needed to really be a huge force in the scene and take on some big touring slots. Maybe it’s because Metalcore is evolving into a very pop orientated genre, and they aren’t evolving with it? Maybe it’s because they aren't really a Metalcore band at all? What do I know? Not a lot, but I do know that ‘Vemod’ is an endless assault of great drumming, blast beats, riffing, breakdowns, random soft spots and two standout vocal performances both Unclean and Clean.
Opening with the 6 minute ‘Beneath The Creek’ is almost the perfect welcoming to the band for anyone new. You are calmed with a false sense of security with a nice guitar opening, until Bastian emerges when his demonic uncleans fill the air and drummer Johan decides it’s time to ***ING GO!!! Let me tell you, they do GO and they rarely stop. ‘A Voice In the Static’ has some beefy and groovy riffs thrown into the blender and it works nicely, and they even dabble in a bit of djent with ‘Cursed Earth’ producing some nice guitar work. With all this, they still fit comfortably into the Deathcore genre with endless blast beats and Bastian’s vocals should keep even the most pretentious of Deathcore fans happy.
On Bastian, the unclean vocalist here, his performance alone on this record should be looked at and praised. He is phenomenal and his range is HUGE. His lows are brutal and demonic, whilst his high shrieks are gloriously piercing, and he tends to throw in plenty of BLEGHS for good measure. He doesn’t really sit at one tone for long, he jumps all around between his lows, mids, BLEGHS and highs and its truly a glorious listening experience. Maybe it’s just me but I don’t hear too many vocalists in Metalcore pull out some of the sounds he does.
Now onto the never-ending debate about if clean vocals are needed or not. I’ll say if all clean vocalists sounded like bassist Lukas, then yes – clean vocals SHOULD be incorporated into everything! But I digress, Lukas stands out amongst a sea of 'clean vocalist' as one of the better ones. He has just enough grit to be convincing and he doesn't incorporate the much beloved 'RnB' sound into everything like so many bands seem to be doing now. His cleans are usually kept to the choruses of songs, but he does have some specific moments where he shines so bright. 'Mask ov Lies' and 'Cowards Tongue' being his best moments with the second half of 'Cowards Tongue' producing a rare change of pace on what is for the most part, an unvaried assault of aggression.
Variation is not in the vocabulary of 'Forgetting The Memories'. To be fair, they do show they are completely competent of producing melodic moments and Lukas does has some great moments here. It does though get hard to determine which song is which. That is a probably an issue with both the Metalcore and Deathcore genres, so I won't hold it against them because honestly, these guys know what they are doing, and they are doing it a lot better than bands who get sung some crazy praises.
