review: Dark Forest

Dark Forest

Oak, Ash & Thorn

Cruz Del Sur Music

24 April 2020

The most distinguishing characteristic of DF is the ways that they integrate the melodies into their songs for a more elegant sense of traditional heavy metal. What types of melodies? They seem like their own representations of something like European medieval, folk, renaissance, Celtic, and classical melodies reiterated through rock music, sounding both familiar and very interesting at the same time. The clean, catchy, and vibrant melodies on this album would not be strange to rock audiences, from 1970s heavy metal (classic and hard rock) to today’s traditional heavy and power metal, for instance, but done with more class than is usually heard.

Rock fans looking not so much for "angry" music but rather skilled and smooth melodic heavy metal would be the people that would be possible listeners. A lot of metal music is all about that crunch on the guitars, making things loud, and of course, that’s very entertaining, but this British band’s guitar work has a certain silkiness that’s noticeable, as if they are so good that they do not need to go out of their way to prove anything because they do not need it. One listen to the album is enough to hear the difference. Actually, if you are really skeptical and you do not feel like listening to the entire album, this reviewer recommends that you go listen to the song “The Midnight Folk” and if that song does not do it for you, then, OK, this band is not for you. Knowledgeable fans might hear various influences; some people will notice the smooth melodies that might recall bands like Boston, Thin Lizzy, U.F.O., Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian and other bands known for the melodies.

Lastly, the singing. An additional advantage of DF singing is that the voice is also smooth. The DF voice avoids the high screaming that some people find annoying, like when singers keep hitting the high notes for no apparent motive other than to show their pipes. We do know that some people specifically do not like the unnecessary high note screaming in traditional heavy metal. However, for those people we can say, try DF for a change. The singing is not “yelly” and sounds a lot more pleasant on the ears. You never know, maybe you might agree with some of those Metal Archives reviewers that have given this band some rather high marks. This new album is a great illustration how good DF is.

darkforest-uk.bandcamp.com