Description

Reduced price due to cover being vg+

Very rare 2003 Blut Und Eisen Production press on black vinyl with gatefold cover. Limited 300 copies

The Italian band Forgotten Tomb create what they describe as ‘depressive and mainpulating dark metal’. While this label is not inaccurate to the whole of the band’s work, it is somewhat vague, as ‘depressive’ and ‘dark metal’ have been used as descriptions for bands such as later-day Sentenced, who Forgotten Tomb make sound like Bon-Jovi. Fundamentally, the music of Forgotten Tomb is blackened doom metal, taking much of its inspiration from Katatonia’s ‘Dance Of December Souls’. Yet this music is more violent and acerbic than Katatonia, as it is not desperation for deliverance from emotional suffering that Forgotten Tomb express, but rather a misanthropic coldness and suicidal despair that is celebrated through a hatred for the burden of existence, reflected in self-affliction and indifference to surrounding structures and sources of human prosperity. On second album ‘Springtime Depression’, Forgotten Tomb cleverly employ the minimalist method of bleak expression formulated by early Katatonia and Burzum. True depression knows no schizophrenic fluctuation or distraction of chaotic emotional responses. It is a constant flowing stream of hopelessness aroused by nothing when in its strongest current. There is no enthusiasm or brief glimpses of light in the kind of depression that stems from realizing the ultimate despair of human existence, because that condition is unchanging regardless of whatever futile attempts we make to ease its weight. Therefore, to appropriately convey this terrible dejection, the artist must apply this reality to the design and tone of the art. Forgotten Tomb have done so, and the result is a deeply penetrating release of bitter disgust of human existence and grim acceptance of its ultimate fate. ‘Springtime Depression’ is a work of bleak metal music born of existential suffering. The music reflects the tortured state of human thoughts and emotions in the face of death and pain. The hollowness of days of nothingness, the cold sweat of haunting nightmares, the nausea of mid-day sunlight creeping through the shades in the moment of utter blackness of mind and soul…these form the essence of Forgotten Tomb’s craft. Suicidal whispers offer a sure exit from the sadness of life, yet the hatred for the curse becomes something of a comfort in spiritual depravity which evolves into the only meaning and purpose of staying alive. For Forgotten Tomb, life is a hopeless curse that is far beyond human capacity to permanently lift. Happiness is a sick illusion promised by deniers of reality. This existential nihilism is well evident in Herr Morbid’s words: ‘A bleak dark statue An old deserted house A desolated subway at night This is what I am’

Track listing:
1. Todestrieb
2. Scars
3. Daylight Obsession
4. Springtime Depression
5. Colourless Despondency
6. Subway Apathy
7. Desolated Funeral