Forlorn (UK) - Aether - review
Forlorn (UK) - Aether - review
Tracklist
01. Mother Of Moon02. Creatress
03. The Wailing
04. Matrum Noctem
05. Funeral Pyre
06. Keeper Of The Well
07. Veiled One
08. Spirit
A review by
musclassia April 27, 2025
From their inception, Forlorn (UK) have made their inspiration clear; the tag ‘Midsommar metal’ has been thrown around in conversation of the band and their debut album, Aether. The group are in good company in taking influence from modern folk horror cinema; fellow upwardly mobile Brits Green Lung have voiced their own appreciation for the ‘alternate England’ crafted by Ben Wheatley in films such as A Field In England. That said, with the nebulous, genre-spanning style that Forlorn demonstrate on this album, they may not be quite as primed for immediate success as Green Lung have found themselves.
It should first be noted that, at 26 minutes in length, Aether is only really a full-length debut due to self-classification; there’s plenty of EPs that are considerably longer, and the band’s own EP Sæl is not much shorter. In spite of this concise duration, Forlorn make evident right from the beginning that they are committed to making the album’s theme integral to its composition. “Mother Of Moon” has eerie ambience beneath chants and ritualistic drums, before morphing into harsh industrial noise in its final seconds; there’s two more ‘interludes’ shaping the record’s narrative, the dark ambient “Matrum Noctem” with insidious voices muttering deep in the mix, and the slightly more melodic “Veiled One”.
As for the other five songs on the record, the overarching style is one based in djent, with the defining crunching guitar tone of that style laying down various grooves across Aether. However, the album distinguishes itself in a few ways, most obviously in how Megan Jenkins’ clean vocals shape its sound. While the heavy verses are accompanied by the expected screams typical of the style, the delicate, ethereal singing voice she employs in the choruses and other melodic sections offer a novel take on the concept of ‘good cop/bad cop’ vocal contrasts in metalcore. In lead single “Cheatress”, the combo of those vocals with the surrounding metal reminds me above anything of the Celestial album by Super Satan from a couple of years ago, although perhaps early Myrkur is a more widely recognizable point of comparison. In other tracks, including “The Wailing” and closer “Spirit”, her delivery has more in common with that of Eva Korman in Grievances-era Rolo Tomassi.
The fusion of these vocal contrasts with heavy djent rhythms alongside more ethereal melodic soundscapes is quite the enticing one; it is, however, held back a tad by a somewhat muted production that dulls a bit of Aether’s impact. One of the moments in the record that’s really captured me is the post-chorus djent beatdown in “Funeral Pyre” (and also the breakdown at the song’s end), but as much as the groove itself is fun and meaty, the fact it roars out the speakers with audibly greater heft than many other parts of the record also plays a part. I also do find there are moments where the contrasts within songs fail to fully gel with one another, with the semi-spoken pre-chorus and murky chorus of “The Wailing” not really landing for me after the dense preamble.
That aside, I feel fairly warm towards Aether overall; as an unabashed fan of djent music, bands that find a novel angle with which to incorporate those elements are automatically off to a good start with me, and beyond the aforementioned “Funeral Pyre”, I dig the punchy verses and soaring chorus of both “Cheatress”, while “Keeper Of The Well” breaks from this structure in favour of predominantly clean vocals that allow the track’s heaviest moments to make a fitting mark. There’s also a compelling gravitas to the elongated phrasing of the chorus in final song “Spirit”.
In spite of its brevity, Aether still suffers slightly from a couple of below-par ideas making the cut, but as an early step in the band’s journey, it is one that does a good job of highlighting Forlorn’s novelty and ingenuity as something worth monitoring going forward.
Written on 27.04.2025 by
Written on 27.04.2025 by
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This is not my usual go-to style at all but I find this particular album so intriguing, it has such an interesting combination of styles from djent and progressive, to gothic/occult rock, something that on paper sounds like it shouldn't work for me, but it certainly does. There's a few mesmerizing moments instrumentally but I'm more impressed by her vocals, especially her cleans which have a certain enchanting charm about them, kinda reminding me of Chibi from The Birthday Massacre in a way.
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