Review of Forest Silence - Philosophy Of Winter

Forest Silence is a moderately well-known name in the Hungarian black metal community, featuring as they do members of the much better-known Sear Bliss; they started out in 1997 as a dark ambient band, and over the years have gradually integrated more and more elements of black metal into their sound until they arrived at their present state. Philosophy Of Winter finds them firmly entrenched in a blackened pit of Burzumic despair – the best “genre tag” I can come up with is “Black Ambient/Doom,” and even that falls far short. It’s impossible to accurately pigeonhole them, because they simply don’t sound like anyone else. Imagine the tortured howls of Filosofem, clawing their way up through layers and layers of distortion; haunting, mournful keyboards’ voices that slither through the dense fog like wraiths, and underneath it all, the insistent forward march of pure vintage black metal. The atmosphere on this one hangs as heavy as a stormcloud, beautifully dark and inescapably gloomy, complimented by the surprisingly clear, organic production. The riffs are hypnotic and repetitive, and the vocals are high in the mix yet muffled exactly the right way. If pressed for comparisons, I’d have to point towards Drudkh, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Hate Forest, all of whom are as fond of sprawling woodland epics and the godless winds of old as Forest Silence have shown themselves to be on this release.

This album is for those who are willing to go much deeper into the very idea of the music itself; those who gladly embrace the feelings of biting cold and the midnight frost that this album conjures up. This is the sort of album one allows oneself to get lost in. Philosophy Of Winter is a fucking beautiful album. Yes, black metal can be beautiful. Not everyone may be able to find that beauty, buried as it oftentimes is beneath layers of grime and hate, but it exists, and once you find it, you’re never quite the same again. This comes with my highest recommendation, and could even be called essential. Black metal, doom metal, ambient/experimental – whatever yer poison may be, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

Release Details

Forest Silence

Philosophy Of Winter

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