Review of Forgotten Tomb - Love's Burial Ground

I’m not really sure whether to call this doomy black metal or blackened doom, but either way, you can begin to imagine what this Italian act has in store. What began as a sole project of Herr Morbid has grown to include a few other members over the course of their 5 year span. Forgotten Tomb revel in the melancholic, playing what they describe as “depressive black metal”, which is fairly accurate. Love’s Burial Ground could easily serve as a soundtrack to suicide, although not in the “I’m gonna kill myself if I have to listen to this again.” In fact, it’s quite good.

The album begins with 2 minutes of cave music contributed by Nordvargr, a Swede who is apparently a big name in dark ambient sounds. He also supplies an intermission and outro. Sandwiched between those three segments are six gloomy tracks, averaging ten minutes in length. When songs of that size are combined with the word “doom”, one can be sure of droning pieces that stretch on interminably, but those are thankfully not the norm. When Forgotten Tomb hit their stride, they reveal a very healthy resemblance to early Katatonia and the like. Herr Morbid’s vocals are a standard raspy scream, which is nicely worked into the production. There is a lot of high-end emphasis, without drowning in fuzz, and the clean guitars and piano come through clearly.

One oddity I noticed is that they always tend to end their songs on a very strong note, usually with mid or fast-paced, dreary melodies. “Alone” is the pinnacle of the album – 12 minutes of pure, bleak guitar melodies, in the vein of The Prophecy. Just the way I like it. One the other hand, the following song, “House of Nostalgia” takes an excruciatingly long time to pick up, serving as a marathon buildup to a mild climax for the last minute. About 7 minutes could easily be chopped out of the middle. But such is the risk when a band specializes in writing tales of epic proportions. “Slave of Negativity” succeeds in picking up the pieces with more of an emphasis on the black aspects of their sound.

Listening to Love’s Burial Ground in one sitting can be tiresome. When approached in smaller chunks they effectively create an enveloping atmosphere of despair. Fans of doom/black metal should find something to enjoy out of one of Adipocere’s better releases.

Release Details

Forgotten Tomb

Love's Burial Ground

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