Band:	Forgotten Tomb
Album:	Songs To Leave
Style:	Black metal, Doom metal
Release date:	2002
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Entombed By Winter
02. Solitude Ways
03. Steal My Corpse
04. No Way Out
05. Disheartenment

After Forgotten Tomb's first black metal EP, the masterpiece "Obscura Arcana Mortis," Herr Morbid slows down the sound of the band. He starts moving to extreme doom metal soundscapes with a sense of black metal in the vein of early Katatonia, Dolorian and a bit of Burzum's "Filosofem." Now added to their music is a touch of heart and soul through his lyrics and screams. Forgotten Tomb is not a copy-band, but a band harmonizing their influences with original ideas. The atmosphere of this debut album, "Songs to Leave," evokes suicidal thoughts and visions, depressive, desperate and bleak emotions with an intense dark feeling that is always present. The occult, misanthropic lyrical influences of their first EP are not as present, but rather combined with the new depressive music and Herr Morbid's painful screams.

"Songs to Leave" opens with the suffocating "Entombed by Winter." The bass lines in the beginning, the overall guitar riffing, structure of the song and twisted serene keyboard melodies refer at times to Dolorian. This makes the whole asphyxiating atmosphere extremely unearthly and mournful. The distorted vocals of Herr Morbid give you a sense of "dusty shells of pictures buried by years," of bitterness and pain, and bring forth memories of Burzum's "Filosofem" era. The album flows in absolute greatness with "Solitude Ways" where Herr Morbid's inspiration seems to be endless; inspired guitar riffing paving along with the nocturnal rhythm section. Herr Morbid's penetrating screams step in to complete the overall atmosphere, along with some nightmarish keyboards. Intense and descriptive, they evoke visions of solitude, misery, pain and darkness.

The album flows in raging tones yet without losing the bitterness and mourning. With "Steal My Corpse," one great riff comes after the other strengthening the dark wailing atmosphere enriched by Herr Morbid's eerie screams. He seems to be living the lyrics and breathing his final breath with every word he utters. As "Songs to Leave" goes on, Herr Morbid ensures us that there's "No Way Out" that "a human life is not worth more, than a tear stolen in a frozen dawn, a drop of blood on a yellowed paper, a shiver in the sharpened rain." Early Katatonia makes an appearance in the guitar riffs, accompanying Herr Morbid's suicidal summoning. His dying-screams interpretation paints a crimson sunset with his blood.

The album slowly reaches the end in an appropriate bleak way with "Disheartenment." As you are "lying in a dark corner" where "the black candle light is dying out" the bleeding guitars paint a soundscape with raven-dark colors of pain and bitterness. Adding a sense of heart's crimson to the overall darkness that surrounds the listener are Herr Morbid's mournful screams piercing you deep inside, leaving scars in your aching soul that is craving for death in a time when even death is not enough to ease the pain?

This album is a masterpiece of doom/black metal and Herr Morbid is pouring his soul into the music, lyrics and atmosphere. You should definitely check it out if you are looking for a wonderful doom/black metal release of intense bleak emotions.