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Artist: FORGOTTEN
SOULS
Album: Nine Syndromes
Year: 2008
When it comes to the Polish music industry, you don't
really think of industrial. Bands like Behemoth, Vader,
Antigama, Third Degree and Toxic Bonkers already
contributed to my CD collection with various releases,
and when it comes to industrial I remember reviews I did
for just Iperyt and Bremenn. But now I have another
Polish product in my hands. Forgotten Souls already
exists since 1998, and released a few unknown pieces in
the past before releasing the 'Nine Syndromes' album.
According to the press-sheet, this should mark a big
step forward in both songwriting and technical
craftsmansip for the band. We can expect "a combination
of black/death metal dynamism, synthetic sounds and
grotesque feeling" on this concept album.
'War' is a midtempo blackened death metal track, with
modern influences varying from symphonic touches to wave/industrial
sampling. It contains heavy riffing and powerful
drumming, and modern synthlines that seem influenced by
80's synthpop and wave. The next song follows walking
that particular 'Path' when it comes to the metal side.
Next to that, the song has much more industrial
influences within the sampling and the drumming, which
gives it a more futuristic attitude. In my opinion, this
is the best track on the release. 'Creature' is a more
easy listening and atmospheric track. It's build on a
spine of future pop synthlines and gentle though strong
drumming. The riffing is more than decent, and the vocal
lines are even a little recogniseable, which makes it
the most accessable track on the release. 'Atomic Walz'
is a futuristic industrial (death) metal track, with
wicked sampling and extravagant passages. The band
switches from brutal metal parts to easy going wave
parts with ease on this track, without losing the
connection with the other tracks. 'Somatic Trauma' is a
nice uptempo industrial death metal track, with strong
connections to Fear Factory. Other influences that are
mixed within the track are black metal and wave, which
results in an interesting track. 'Childhurt' is a wicked
and modern track that contains a few chaotic passages.
It has the biggest vocal variation all over the record.
'End' comes up next. It's a mostly instrumental track,
influenced by modern cyber metal, with whispering vocals
near the end. 'Butcher's Love Song' is again more
industrial black metal based. It contains powerful
drumming and riffing, and gentle industrial sampling and
keylines. 'Fear' is a modern cyber metal track, with
extravagant and experimental musical works. It switches
from gentle midtempo parts to more brutal uptempo parts
- both parts accompanied by wellfitting vocal lines.
For the people who already took a quick look at the
tracklist and think its a weird one, I had the same in
the beginning. The explanation is quite simple though;
the tracks with just the letters are all instrumental
intermezzos (and one intro and one outro) that take care
of the good cohesion inbetween the songs. While lots of
industrial metal bands use ambient tracks for those
purposes, Forgotten Souls jumps from wave to industrial
and even a little dark electro on them - which is very
refreshing to hear. The songs flood into the intermezzo
without any hesitation and vice versa, which underlines
the idea of the concept album.
Another quote from their press-sheet: "It's a musical
interpretation of current reality and effect of belief
that in the domain of heavy music there is still a lot
of space for syncretism and experiment". Well, this is
maybe a bit too much of howdy-doodly, but I must admit
that this had been a very interesting meeting with this
Polish band. They show their talent and crazy mindspins
in the way they construct their songs (and as well the
concept on this album), and they aren't afraid of
experimenting a lot. Lots of bands die trying to mix the
influences together as one, Forgotten Souls already
managed to do so. Keep an eye on them!
Vote: 92 / 100
Review by: Gerardo |
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01. S
02. Syndrome 1 - War
03. Syndrome 2 - Path
04. Y
05. Syndrome 3 -
Creature
06. N
07. Syndrome 4 - Atomic
Walz
08. D
09. Syndrome 5 - Somatic
Trauma
10. R
11. Syndrome 6 -
Childhurt
12. Syndrome 7 - End
13. O
14. Syndrome 8 -
Butcher's Love Song
15. M
16. Syndrome 9 - Fear
17. E |
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