Foret D'Orient – Essedvm (2011)

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With a very interesting combination of atmospheric and folk elements with brutal Black Metal, Foret D’Orient delivers us their first EP called “Essedvm”. In this release the band instantly reminded us of the early Dismal Euphony releases, a feat that no band has done to date. Featuring six brilliantly crafted tracks, this Italian band delivers just the right amount of melody and atmosphere to offset the Black Metal side of things and create very emotional and powerful songs.

With a lush and epic opening track with “Campo Di Marte”, the band really generates expectation in the listener. The acoustic sections are very well introduced and nicely help in the build-up process. “Sagitta” wastes no time and delivers powerful riffing accompanied with hellish vocals, this song nicely evolves into a more melodic territories as the song progresses. The use of the harp in this song is very eerie and works wonderfully when paired with some whispers, just to fully explode into powerful riffs and harsh vocals. This hypnotic atmosphere is what we usually yearn for, and this band excels at it, too bad the song ends somewhat abruptly.

The emotional rollercoaster of “Mantva 1328 - I e II Movimento” delivers a very well balanced used of folk melodies with devastating blast-beat assaults. The blending of both styles is very natural an effective letting the folk/atmospheric parts fully shine by themselves. The interlude “Et Veteres Revocavit Artes” is a nice piece that slows down things and prepares the listener for another future onslaught.

With an Immortal-styled opening, “Diadema” is our favorite track of this release. The atmospheric keyboards are very effective in contrasting the music and sound very powerful in this release, while not 100% well mixed and clear sounding; they just show that the band still needs some improvement in the future. The closing track “Prudentia Et Armi” nicely closes this release by showing together all the elements that make this release interesting and appealing.

Overall, we think that “Essedvm” is indeed an excellent release but it is also a very young one. The band needs to clean up their style a bit more and maybe exploit more the atmospheric side of things. The guitars and bass guitar are excellent alongside the drumming, but there are still some weak issues when it comes to putting the songs together. That being said, this is not a bad release at all, and it will highly enjoyable for people that like different and atmospheric Black Metal releases.

Band: Foret D'Orient Album: Essedvm
Label: Archaic North Entertainment

Release: November 18th, 2011

Oficial Site myspace
Genre: Atmopsheric/Folk Black Metal

Country: Italy

Rating: 85/100
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