Saturday 24 April 2021

Forest Evil - Into The Woods (Album Review)


Release date: April 30th 2021. Label: Kozmik Artifactz. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Into The Woods – Tracklisting

1. Sent From Hell
2. Adler
3. White Stage
4. Into the Woods
5. Brimstone Boogie 
6. Kingdom Come
7. Burn the Witch
8. See Her Die


Members

Ryan Goss (guitar)
Chris Gamble (bass)
Christian Perez (drums)
Daniel Stephens (vocals)


Review

Forest Evil are from Savannah, GA and have been brought up on steady diet of Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard and Church Of Misery. Well that’s the impression I made after listening to their debut full length album Into The Woods. A dark, brooding and mysterious album channelling that legendary SABBATH based sound with more modern ideas with a cracking FUZZ based atmosphere which is quite LO-FI in all the right ways.

The album opens with a rather happy little number called Sent From Hell which shows the true power of Forest Evil and their blend of trippy and fuzztastic Doom/Stoner Metal. The band take the more gloomy and violent route with their lyrics which allows the band show their true “DOES IT DOOM” credentials. The vocals are clean spoken with a hint of malice behind them. The lyrics are inspired by Church Of Misery with a seedy violent undertone to them all.

Second song – Adler – is more of a Southern Rock tinged offering with a twinge of “Gothic” sounds before the band bring back the heavy thunderous Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal grooves. The song like the album is constantly bleak but Forest Evil grow ever more in confidence with this song and play one of the best tracks on the record. It’s quite slow-paced but this allows the listener to soak every thick groove and nasty riff being played around them.

Third song – White Stag – is a more straight-forward Doom/Stoner Metal song with the band having less time to play with compared to the opening two songs. This song has a more fantastical feel with it’s “manly” lyrics making a mighty impression. The song moves confidently from Doom Metal to Southern Metal for the 1st part of the song before the Psychedelic Stoner vibes make an appearance.

Fourth Song – Into The Woods – is another track where the band bring another style of music to the party with a more subtle “Blues Rock” holding everything together. There is also a very cool “Boogie Rock” sound lingering in the background as well. The band excel playing an almost high voltage style of music which remains true to the Doom/Stoner Metal identity of the entire album.

Forest Evil go considerably bleaker on the 2nd half of the album with choice cuts such as: Brimstone Boogie and Kingdom Come leading the way for the some of the best and heaviest parts of the record.

The band surprised me even further with the final song See Her Die which starts as off as a Southern Rock Love Song but wait until the vocals and FUCKED-UP lyrics appear. Damn. That song left me on a downer. As it’s quite a dark, surreal and bleak offering which I didn’t expect but it allows Forest Evil to end the album on violently gleeful high.

Into The Woods is an excellent debut record on all fronts and should appeal to a vast section of the Doom, Sludge and Stoner Metal community. There’s something here for everyone to enjoy and admire. If you’re looking for your next bleak musical odyssey to stumble upon then I recommend this brilliantly entertaining album.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Kozmik Artifactz for the promo. Into The Woods will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Kozmik Artifactz from April 30th 2021.

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