Label: Independent
Date: December 19th, 2023
Well, I think we’ll take a little break in our voyage around the metal world and gating to know bands coming from some exotic for most of us countries. Instead it’s high time for an unrestrained and open, probably even disgusting privacy on my part! This is about reviewing bands where my very good buddies or even their children play. Well, you’ll actually visit several countries during my self-service, so on one hand we’ll continue to be mentioned before the voyage, even if in other ways. I was thinking for quite a long time which ensemble should go first, but I finally decided I will give you the opportunity to get to know a band coming from my home-city. One of the reasons for such decision was the fact that Bydgoszcz’s metal scene isn’t, and it absolutely has nothing to do with music quality as well, as well-known as it deserves even in Poland. Anyways, Bleeding Forest is a young, even very young group found last year and rhythm guitarist over there is the son of a guy who I know and once was very close with (even if for about something like two decades our paths haven’t crossed) since I was sixteen or so. So here’s one more evidence Metal isn’t only music or some fucking fashion you can grow up from and love to this music must be a mutation in DNA as well, it seems. I know too many examples like John’s one to believe it’s some kind of coincidence children of metalheads became also metalheads. It just happens too often to be an accident.
“Betrayers ov God” is of course the very first stuff in the history of the mentioned band. Of course, Dante, Raven, John and Morgoth (who’s not a member of the band anymore, as I know) released it independently online, December 19th. Release contains four songs and I will tell you what. You’ll be, just like me, a little bit confused. They created such compositions in the space of a few months. That’s not about some complicated as hell structure of tracks, instrumental displays (even if you can hear some solo here or there) and stuff like that. It’s actually even contrary, which shouldn’t be any surprise if we think about age and experience of musicians. Music is quite raw and you have a strong feeling you heard it before. But in my opinion this is a huge plus. Anyways, guys draw full handfuls from works of the eighties and early nineties, which you can see in their logo. I could name a few very well known ensembles, actually Gods of Metal, but we all know I won’t do it, not only in this case, but even never ever. By the way, these four songs, the first one, “Sounds of the Fallen” is instrumental and quite short one, are kept in thrash convention at the most, but also huge touches of the very first wave of black metal are available here. Actually, sometimes I have a feeling this second sub-genre of our beloved music somehow dominates here. It’s maybe not about music itself, but… Riffs are both aggressive, sharp and at the same time they have enough elements of darkness, hellish dirty and even blasphemy. And even if they don’t change too often or aren’t very difficult to play, you hear, feel and almost can touch enthusiasm in every entire guitar chord. The same thing is of course about drumming and vocalization. You’ll not find here some sophisticated passages or changes in way of singing. But it makes music really fresh, even if, as I said before, there’s nothing original over there and I heard such playing probably something like 1486 times.
Of course you’ll find some shortcomings (technical or other) here, if you like to fuck everything. But personally I don’t fuckin’ care about them – probably because I’m not kind of person who’s looking a hole in the whole. I know that’s not any masterpiece or edge-breaking stuff, but at the same time in my opinion Bleeding Forest has huge potential. Besides, hey! Guys, just like I mentioned before, created “Betrayers…” in the space of a few months, so that’s as clean as a sun. They make some little mistakes and so on, don’t they? I really like “Betrayers ov God” and listen to it with pleasure. That’s why I’m somehow happy writing this review goes with great difficulty. You know I have a good enough excuse to listen to this stuff once again and once again. Oh, I forgot to tell you the creativity of this, probably the youngest horde coming from my home-city is the most in the middle tempo. “Exception” is the last song on this demo, “Dark Fantasy”, which has some subtle elements of doom. Anyways, in the end I add only one more sentence. Future of metal is bright if there’re such young bands!
