Forgotten Tomb – Under Saturn Retrograde

site | label | buy

Forget what you knew about Forgotten Tomb. Gone are the similarities to bands like Shining, Lifelover and Silencer. With Under Saturn Retrograde, the band evolves more than ever into a depressive rock sound and channel the spirit of Swallow The Sun, Katatonia and even Type O Negative. And it works completely. Never before have Forgotten Tomb made such bleak and helpless music that’s also accesible and fun to listen to. Part one of the title track still shows their black metal roots, but every other track is gloomed out doom rock at its core. Shutter has the vocalist, Herr Morbid (fitting), gives his best Peter Steele impression near the end of the song. Also included is a pretty satisfying cover of The Stooges‘ I Wanna Be Your Dog which actually works well in this genre, surprisingly. Very accesible, very catchy, but still scathingly depressive and moody, Under Saturn Retrograde is definitely a different approach to the Forgotten Tomb formula, but it holds up extremely well and should satisfy fans of the band both old and new. Definitely one of the bleakest, most depressing albums this year. But that’s good.

Written by Jackson May
More: 2011, Albums, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Forgotten Tomb