Band:	Forest Of Shadows
Album:	Under The Dying Sun - Promo
Style:	Atmospheric doom metal, Death doom metal
Release date:	2000
A review by:	KwonVerge

01. Under The Dying Sun

Forest Of Shadows, this is where you lose yourself at times of deep sorrow and everlasting solitude while listening to their music, in a misty and dark forest of shadows letting the forlorn shades speak of tales of bleakness. "Under the Dying Sun" is their second demo released during 2000 and it consists only of one composition, the 15-minute ode to melancholy "Under the Dying Sun." Katatonia and My Dying Bride influences can be heard here and there, but being well-hidden since Forest Of Shadows are only influenced and do not copy, playing music from the artist's heart straight to the listener's.

I could write down as a review only the lyrics of "Under the Dying Sun" that are pure poetry to my eyes, bleeding words, grieving tears from the eyes of Ligeia falling in the doleful darkness; they represent the sound of the band in a way that no man could do better. When the time comes to write down my thoughts concerning this band they flee from my mind, I cannot speak, I cannot recall what I was thinking simply because this band is so special to me dragging my soul out of my body drowning me into a forest of shadows?

?"Under the Dying Sun" seeing its scarlet rays fading in the darkening horizon. The mournful guitar riffing along with the floating doleful ethereal keyboard melodies that lurk behind the guitar sound open the gates of bereavement and Niclas' almost-crying desperate grunts enter to complete the bleak soundscape. The mournful slow guitar riffing dances in a heart-rending way with the melancholic guitar chords as withered rose-leafs start falling around you welcoming the grieving violin melodies when you realize that there's no escape from this bitter nightmare where pain and sorrow seem like joyful memories in front of the burden you have to bear. Niclas' grunts, desperate screams, melancholic chants and whispers are utterly descriptive as if he was an actor in the most tear-filled drama living every single word he utters from his bitter lips, words of the heart scarring deep your fragile soul becoming one with the melodies. The bleakness that the lyrics unfold harmonize in painful ways with the bleeding musical background, lyrics that speak of your beloved one embracing eternal sleep, fading "in fields of green, under the dying sun," "breathing her final breath," "in the fields of green you see her die," "you cry out in grief, for your beloved one," "you see her die?"

"Under the Dying Sun" will drown you in 15 minutes of utterly emotional melodic doom/death metal that will last for all eternity; don't miss it?