BLACK FOREST “Dream”

Self Released, 2018

Music: Symphonic Metal

Website: https://www.facebook.com/blackforestmetal/

Duration: 34:00 minutes (7 songs)

Country: Austria

I have heard a lot of backlash on Symphonic Metal from my friends, whom claim anything Symphonic as cheesy. To be honest, I do like Symphonic Metal but not those who tend to move away from the original sound to produce something “evil and brutal”(if you could find the band whom I’m talking about, you will get a cookie and a coffee). Jokes aside, I wasn’t a huge fan of Symphonic until I took Septic Flesh seriously. Followed by a lot of artists like Darkspace, Wintersun and many others,I began getting an idea as to why there’s a huge fanbase behind this specific genre.

My continued search brought me to an Austrian Symphonic Metallers, Black Forest. Being a new band who just released their debut effort this year, I thought of giving a crisp review to get these guys’s music known. Dream is an album that was originally written back in 2006 which was produced and decomposed by the band this year. I would classify their sound as something what I like to call ” Wintersun-core”. Yes, you heard it right, these guys write a beautiful compositions like that of the genre heavyweights Wintersun. At some point through the album, I became so indulged and thought these guys are better than Wintersun(I’m not even exaggerating).

After a Prelude AND an Intro, the album starts fairly smooth and the pace is picked up by the longer tracks, Dream and Moonlight. The orchestrations perfectly match the rest of the instruments which paves a clean path for the screams to follow. Even though the guitars do sound good, the spotlight is on the compositions. Orchestrations is what makes this album a job well done. I love the way the drums sound, not too loud to spoil the compositions yet giving a nice little punch for the songs. The only thing that is missing is Bass. I know, some might not take Bass seriously, but as an Old School enthusiast, I would love to hear a nice little section dedicated to Bass alone. The reason why the Bass is shadowed is that the written compositions ie, Orchestrations demands spotlight.

Overall, Dream is a splendid effort made by a fairly new band. A debut album can’t be much more perfect than this. Black forest have a huge road up ahead and I strongly believe that these guys are gonna travel down till the horizon. Expect these guys to open for Wimtersun in future, they truly deserve it.

Tracklist:

1. Prelude
2. Intro
3. Darkened
4. Dawn
5. Moonlight
6. Dream
7. Memories

Line-up:

Thomas Reichhart – orchestration, guitars, piano
Fabian Moik – vocals
Aram Brückl – guitars
Thomas Haider – guitars
Yannick Bertel – bass, acoustic guitars
Maximilian Geismann – drums

Rate: 8.5/10