Description

2012 press on 10” gold vinyl with insert. Limited 200 copies

Before Forgotten Tomb there was a group called Sacrater that released just one demo of pure old school black metal. They split up after a short period of time to form this new, bestial creature that later would have become famous for its unique depressive black metal; but few know that the first EP has nothing in common with that genre. This Obscura Arcana Mortis” features surprisingly a good and fast black metal. The depressive tempos were behind the corner but the 1999 Forgotten Tomb didn’t want to slow down. The bass sound is like a chainsaw and the guitars are always on fast open chords riffage on the power chords, while the lead guitar as I said before, carries on the dark melodies. There are no clean vocals here obviously and no doom passages yet but anyway we can find a lot of dark elements, now more focused on the speed. There are few slow parts that anyway don’t have the same black/doom patterns. The opening part to ‘Forgotten Tomb’ song and some sections in it can be seen as a starter for the future band’s direction, because they are colder and slower but with a more satanic touch than a depressive one. Overall, this is a completely different Forgotten Tomb effort, showing a band that was still very influenced without being yet so influential. Anyway they are able to show us in few, very short parts, some of the characteristics they would have developed in the future but they are yet hidden behind the pure speed. The personality is so far well shown but the best has to come.

Track listing:
1. Nightfrost
2. Nefarious Nights
3. Forgotten Tomb
4. Obscura Arcana Mortis
5. Outro