Review by Vinny for Forgotten Woods - As the Wolves Gather (1994)

Having spent most of my year so far keeping up with bm releases from 2025, I took it upon myself this afternoon to have a dig around for some Norwegian bands from the 90’s that I had never heard of. Soon enough, I landed with the debut album from Forgotten Woods, a Burzum inspired affair that certainly promised lots, even if the delivery was not always there. Reading up on the band, they underwent a distinct change of direction shortly after the band splintered into Joyless. This new group soon left behind the metal elements of Forgotten Woods and eventually some of the members who played here on As the Wolves Gather now play exclusively post-punk (“with various influences”) in Joyless. I guess that the debut album heralds the most interesting point of the band for me, as it certainly holds true to that 2nd wave vibe for most of its fifty-minutes plus run time. There are hints of a more melodic and less grim aesthetic that poke through here on a couple of the instrumental tracks which are neat little passages that break up the album well.

Without expecting them to be masters of their instruments (this is black metal after all) there were clearly some holes in the ability of the group at the time and the album itself is produced with suitably low values for the sub-genre. Some of the lead work does sound a bit amateurish in places and drawn out to the point of pain in one instance. Late guitarist Olev Berland was only eighteen years old at the time of recording this and I would suggest he makes all the mistakes of someone that age in the 90’s. There’s no need for the flurry of lead work in the album closer, ‘Through Dark and Forgotten Valleys’, it is a strong enough track to keep to the solid structure it presents with. No flourish needed folks. That having been said there is a consistent yet unintrusive bass presence that seemingly lurks in the background alongside the relatively tame-sounding drums.

The star of the show for me though is vocalist Thomas Torkelsen. He is the perfect style of vocalist for the band; his demented and depressive howls really do bring the album up a notch or two all by themselves. They appear to be center stage for most of the tracks, however, again, they are not done to the point of being intrusive and all the tracks come off as well balanced in the main. For an undiscovered bm record from the 90’s hub of the 2nd wave, this is not half bad. It is far from outstanding in terms of challenging any of the more well-known classics of the time, yet it is still good enough to have made more of a dent than it had to date with me.