Forneus - In The Name Of Khaos
I quite liked Forneus' contributions to the In Satan's Honour split last year. Despite having some really long songs, it was solid, atmospheric black metal with some nice touches of death metal thrown in for good measure; not too brutal, but not overtly grim and frostbitten either. It was neat, so when their drummer recently mentioned that they'd had a new EP out for about four months, I was understandably pissed that such information had been withheld from me for so long.
That said, there isn't a great deal to say here that didn't apply to the tracks Forneus had on In Satan's Honour - the songs are still rather long (more on that later) and pretty much equal in overall quality to what we heard before, which is by no means a bad thing. Though I got a surprise from the get-go, as after a spoken intro track, I was treated to Paragon... the first two minutes and forty seven seconds of which sounds more akin to The Beatles or clean Devin Townsend. If you've had me scrambling for my emails because your track has given me the impression that I was sent the wrong album, you've obviously done something right; I felt like a major twat as soon as the song got into full swing and I realised that Forneus were fucking with me, the bastards. But once it kicks off properly, we've got the delightful black-death that was expected and while nothing new, it gets the job done just as well as their previous batch of songs did.
The interesting point to make about this release is that the second track on the EP, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Torment, is just as long and ridiculous as its title... but it's not the shitty sort of long where it awkwardly and unknowingly outstays its welcome like my ex. With most songs that dare to breach the ten minute mark, they just turn into a boring mess of plodding, poorly written tripe that has no justifiable reason to exist other than to give the band an excuse to try and appear progressive (especially when they're usually just shitty songwriters) and tend to just fade out into white noise by the four minute mark. Forneus, however, curiously managed to keep me spellbound without necessarily having a good reason as to WHY I should be so captivated by twelve minutes of screechy-blasty-churchy-burny blackened death metal that doesn't actually bear a tremendous degree of progression or variation compared to other songs of such length. Hell, it doesn't even feel as long as it is - I was listening to it while doing some work and when it ended, I said "That was fucking awesome" before I recoiled in horror and went "Bull fucking SHIT was that 12 minutes long!" and had to get someone to come over with a mug of Horlicks to stop the uncontrollable shaking. Okay, so that last bit was an exaggeration, but it was a really good piece that didn't make me want to claw my eyes own with my own toes. That's rare for short songs, let alone fucking twelve minute long ones, to have such an effect on me.
This aside, there really isn't much to say about In the Name of Khaos that wasn't said before. The band could have done with another song in there (read: a short one) but overall, it's a great listen that should keep fans of the genre hooked. Nothing more, nothing less.
That said, there isn't a great deal to say here that didn't apply to the tracks Forneus had on In Satan's Honour - the songs are still rather long (more on that later) and pretty much equal in overall quality to what we heard before, which is by no means a bad thing. Though I got a surprise from the get-go, as after a spoken intro track, I was treated to Paragon... the first two minutes and forty seven seconds of which sounds more akin to The Beatles or clean Devin Townsend. If you've had me scrambling for my emails because your track has given me the impression that I was sent the wrong album, you've obviously done something right; I felt like a major twat as soon as the song got into full swing and I realised that Forneus were fucking with me, the bastards. But once it kicks off properly, we've got the delightful black-death that was expected and while nothing new, it gets the job done just as well as their previous batch of songs did.
The interesting point to make about this release is that the second track on the EP, The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Torment, is just as long and ridiculous as its title... but it's not the shitty sort of long where it awkwardly and unknowingly outstays its welcome like my ex. With most songs that dare to breach the ten minute mark, they just turn into a boring mess of plodding, poorly written tripe that has no justifiable reason to exist other than to give the band an excuse to try and appear progressive (especially when they're usually just shitty songwriters) and tend to just fade out into white noise by the four minute mark. Forneus, however, curiously managed to keep me spellbound without necessarily having a good reason as to WHY I should be so captivated by twelve minutes of screechy-blasty-churchy-burny blackened death metal that doesn't actually bear a tremendous degree of progression or variation compared to other songs of such length. Hell, it doesn't even feel as long as it is - I was listening to it while doing some work and when it ended, I said "That was fucking awesome" before I recoiled in horror and went "Bull fucking SHIT was that 12 minutes long!" and had to get someone to come over with a mug of Horlicks to stop the uncontrollable shaking. Okay, so that last bit was an exaggeration, but it was a really good piece that didn't make me want to claw my eyes own with my own toes. That's rare for short songs, let alone fucking twelve minute long ones, to have such an effect on me.
This aside, there really isn't much to say about In the Name of Khaos that wasn't said before. The band could have done with another song in there (read: a short one) but overall, it's a great listen that should keep fans of the genre hooked. Nothing more, nothing less.
- In The Name Of Khaos
- Paragon
- The Nine Gates Of The Kingdom Of Torment
- Order: Exterminatus
Self released
Reviewer: Dave Ingram Jr.
Oct 4, 2014
Oct 4, 2014
Next review:
Hatred Superstars - Bastard International
Share this:
