Dark Forest – Ridge & Furrow EP

Frank Rini — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 11:58:17 +0000

I reviewed UK’s Heavy/Power Metal band Dark Forest’s fifth album Oak, Ash & Thorn a few years ago. I raved about the album and now they have returned with a 5-song ep Ridge & Furrow.

Opening with the longest track, “Skylark”, excellent double bass drums with the continued Iron Maiden influences all over the place with some melodic yet excellent power metal riffing. The guitar melodies are terrific and yes Dark Forest always puts a smile on my face when listening to their music. It’s happy and what power metal is about. The ep cover transports me to a time when knights, castles, and dragons ruled the land. The guitar melodies at the 2.45 section are great with the song slowing down with great vocal harmonies to keep you pounding your chest. Scorching lead guitar solos come in and are pumped in the mix to great effect. Josh Winnard lets his set of pipes out in this track. Impressive. Nice song ending with the chirping birds.

Ridge And Furrow by Dark Forest

The birds carry over to the next song, “The Golden Acre”. Nice bass guitar strumming and the metal hits the pedal at the 45-second mark with melodious and impeccable guitar harmonies. The song, judging by the lyrics, is a battle song and the double bass is organic and hits you in the chest with its pounding beat. The song does not have many time changes but I appreciate its simplicity. The title track opens with a great guitar riff as the song sweeps into a slower speed with vocals coming in to sing the song title and the song captures the cover of the ep perfectly. Some stop n start guitar riffing, mixed with the drums and Josh belting out some nice aria sounding oooohhh’s and ahhhh’s. He does this throughout the track and check out his vocal range at the 5.20 section. Superb.

Birds chirp at the start of the last song, “Under the Greenwood Tree” and the speedier tempo returns with nice drum rolls over the guitar melodies. Josh sings the song title and things get rolling as this song has epic greatness all over it. Hold up that goblet of Meade and gulp it down over and over on this one, readers. This is a great song and just as the EP opener, both tracks must be in their live set.

Dark Forest’s Ridge & Furrow is 26 minutes of pure Dark Forest and is a nice stop-gap release before their next full-length album. The production is great as is the musicianship. I don’t get so pressed that some of the songs are repetitive. For me they’re easier to remember and latch on to. These songs are catchy. Great ep. I’d love to see the band come to the US and they’d fit nicely on a tour with Visigoth and Eternal Champion.

Dark Forest – Oak, Ash & Thorn

Frank Rini — Tue, 19 May 2020 11:27:37 +0000

Talk about a surprise band for me. This 4-piece British band has been around for close to 20 years, flying under my radar as they have released 4 prior albums to this fifth one Oak, Ash & Thorn. Dark Forest play a brand of Heavy/Power Metal. Think early Iron Maiden mixed with early Fates Warning and the first Angelwitch album, as the band incorporates some NWOBHM as well.

After an epic and very cool instrumental intro “Wayfarer’s Eve” comes blazing forth with some extraordinary melodic guitar riffing and the singer incorporating some ancient Dickinson and John Arch styled vocals and sounding just plain awesome. The main guitar riff is emotive and very catchy, which has some nice drum rolls and excellent vocal choruses. The song gets me in a good mood-I’m happy. Why?? Because this is real Heavy Metal. Traditional and just plain good ‘ole Metal is not fucking dead. Sure there are the bajillion of extreme metal genres but true metal bands just are not around like they used to be, back in the 70’s-90’s. Dark Forest brings that glory back. An absolutely terrific opening track.

“The Midnight Folk” is another great song with some awesome vocal parts and around the 1.25 part the singer reminds me of Dickinson belting out “2 Minutes to Midnight” for some reason-Bruce is definitely an influence and that is just amazing. Some more awesome guitar melodies as you think about forests, trolls, dew glistening on an open meadow and castles and knights in the background with some stupid fucking little Hobbits running around knocking each other over. Seriously I love listening to this band. The guitar melodies around the 3.20 part with the soloing and then the killer drum rolls where the drummer seems to be using the entire kit and the drums sound organic. No trigger as fuck sounding double bass-this is natural and the way true metal was meant to be played.

Oak, Ash & Thorn by Dark Forest

“Avalon Rising” at over 7 minutes has epic screaming from the beginning with the soft and mellow build up then right into the metal with screaming choruses. An outstanding lead riff with such memorable melodies. More great drums rolls throughout and a little bass guitar getting some action here and there. The title track is close to 12 minutes and has some great guitar work right from the start with the melodies fusing nicely with the drum work and then around the 7 minute mark some nice atmospheric parts with the isolated vocals and the song builds up to a grand crescendo and features some extraordinary screams.

“Eadric’s Return” has some true power metal moments as the song picks up to a galloping pace and has awesome instrumentation all around. The song slows a bit and then picks up some more speed. After the guitar solo check out that guitar riffing beginning at the 3.23 part. Fast and just a killer riff.

Dark Forest is quite the find for me, really. Especially as I am finding other bands out there that are really bringing the power to the true metal such as Khemmis, Visigoth and Eternal Champion and Spirit Adrift. Add Dark Forest in there for me. Dark Forest’s prior output was a bit speedier, adding a little more power to the metal, which is missing here. But do not let that fool you. Every single track is pure metal and forged in blood and steel. The songs are epic and strongly crafted.

Oak, Ash & Thorn features their best sounding album, to date and has epic songs and musicianship that are super strong. When looking at the album cover, I knew immediately I was going to like this band, but never did I expect Dark Forest to resonate in me, as they do. Oak, Ash & Thorn is one of the finest releases this year. Buy or Die!

Dark Forest – Teeth of the Divine

Dark Forest – Ridge & Furrow EP

Dark Forest – Oak, Ash & Thorn