Marblebog- Forestheart

Artist: Marblebog
Album: Forestheart
Label: Autopsy Kitchen Records

This is a well deserved re-release by Autopsy Kitchen Records of Marblebog's ambient/black metal masterpiece. Not only are the 6 tracks presented here excellent examples of this genre of music, the new layout by AKR is killer as well. This is droning, mid to fast paced ambient black metal performed mainly by one man named Vorgrov. Vorgrov's shrieks are layered behind his  buzzing guitar riffs and synth passages to help create a very dismal atmosphere. Besides the opening and closing tracks of the album which are created entirely by synths, there are five tracks of really good black metal inspired by nature. Forestheart is not your typical ambient/black metal release, it has quite a few very interesting differences that set's it apart from the others.. First is the use of a real drummer. Vorgrov didn't go the drum machine route, instead using Gelal to bash the skins. He even takes it one step further and adds some of his own drumming to the music. Vorgrov's use of a shaman drum on "Forestheart" is the second thing that sets it apart from other releases. The third one being the use of a doromb, or mouth harp in Hungarian. Vorgrov had Shadow step in to play the mouth harp, which you can hear most noteably the use of both the doromb and shaman drum at around the 6:30 mark of I Am the Forestheart. This is where the music takes on a folkish feeling but only until the end of the song. This is an excellent album and I would recommend it to any fan of black metal. Definitely grab it if you can find it, as there are only 500 releases on CD and 500 on vinyl.