DARK FOREST — Land of the Evening Star (review)

DARK FOREST — Land of the Evening Star album cover Album · 2012 · Viking Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4.5/5 ·
adg211288
Land of the Evening Star is the second album by Canadian one man black metal project Dark Forest. The album was released in 2012 and is a long awaited release for Dark Forest’s fans since the debut album, Aurora Borealis, was released back in 2006. David Parks is the man behind the project, performing all instruments and vocals, and in Land of the Evening Star he’s produced an album that should be very well worth the long wait.

Dark Forest’s music is easily placed at the most epic end of the black metal spectrum. Atmospheric, symphonic, progressive, and even vaguely folksy in some parts, Land of the Evening Star is a one-man tour de force of epic black metal and forty-five minutes of pure listening pleasure. This is not typical black metal by any means; featuring a clear sound, a focus on melody with a mix of growling and clean vocals. The best way to describe the land though is a musical journey. One that begins with the introductory track Rediscovery of the New World and proceeds to take the listener through the various moods of black metal music mentioned above until it’s conclusion with Bjarne Herjúlfsson ca. 985CE, having kept the quality on a consistently high level throughout with excellent tracks such as Like Towers They Reach To The Sky, Vesperia, and the just shy of nine minute piece A Few Acres Of Snow, a well varied piece that holds many claims to being the best on the album.

It’s funny for me, but I only discovered the existence of this Dark Forest while exploring a complete different one; one that is rooted not in black metal but traditional metal and is found in the United Kingdom and ironically seems to be the less well known band. Having become a fan of that band already for some reason I ignored the existence of the Canadian Dark Forest for quite some time, which was ultimately my loss, which is ultimately the point of this little story; Dark Forest (yes, that’s this Dark Forest) has made the sort of black metal album that I don’t come across very often, one that pushes the boundaries of the style into something quite far removed from the template left by the early Norwegian bands, and skipping over an album like Land of the Evening Star, no matter the reason, will only be to one’s own loss. An exceptional grade rating is easily deserved.

9.0/10

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org) on 08/09/2012)
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed