Forest Of Shadows
Where Dreams Turn To Dust

(...) he immediately observes that harsh and fearful and desolate place,
that horrible and flaming prison all around,
like a vast furnace, yet from those
flames no light, but a transparent dark, a darkness
in which dreadful visions are seen,
regions of sorrow and shades of anguish, and rest and peace
will never be found, nor that hope which every thing usually penetrates;
and only endless torture
perpetually urges, and a flood of flames fed
with ever-burning sulfur, never consumed (...)

(John Milton, "Paradise Lost", book I, vv. 59-69)

Is there life after death? Have you ever wondered if, at least a part of us, can survive after crossing the gates of the afterlife? I have, I have always been fascinated by the idea of life after death and, even though I personally do not believe in the eternity of the soul, I must admit that it unsettles me to imagine what would happen if I were wrong, if there really were something after death. Hell (or the underworld, as it may be called) has always been one of the cornerstones of almost all past and present cultures, and the idea of the abode of the damned souls has always stimulated the minds of the greatest European thinkers. Virgil thought of hell (Tartarus for the Latins) as a kingdom of despair and shadows, where the wicked were punished for eternity. Perhaps the most famous poet who endeavored to recount the prevailing despair in the afterlife was Dante who, with his beautiful and chilling verses, presented the underworld as a place of anguish and despair, where damned souls were condemned to suffer atrocious tortures, forced to be devoured by monstrous beasts or by the incandescent infernal flames, bearers of no light.

In the end, everyone is free to think of hell as they wish, populating it with their greatest, private, and unconscious fears, and perhaps thinking that any metaphysical transposition of the underworld is inherently wrong because the real hell is the one you can live (or experience) in the material world.

A window into this latter vision is offered by Niclas Frohagen through his creation: the Forest Of Shadows, a one man band from Stockholm born in 1997 dedicated to a death doom metal of excellent craftsmanship. In 2001 the band (which also boasts the good full-length "Departure") released the EP "Where Dreams Turn To Dust", a true black pearl of doom.

Frohagen seems to have transposed into music all the despair experienced in life: the disappointments, the defeats, the bad thoughts, the nightmares, and fears take shape thanks to the lyrics and thanks to the splendid notes written by the Swede.

The optical disc playback begins, and it's with the beginning of the splendid "Eternal Autumn" that you enter this infernal dimension. Nothing to do with the scenario described by Dante, the hell that comes to life from the music of Forest Of Shadows is entirely earthly, there are no supernatural creatures and atrocious tortures, except those already existing in the mind of the listener. The song opens with an archaic and poignant melody played by wind instruments, which transports the listener to a rarefied and ethereal world, only to let them plunge into oblivion with the entrance of the guitar and growl. The beautiful guitar lines and the singer's voice modulatability (ranging from growl to a baritone voice to a more clean and whispered one) are the pillars of this splendid track, which represents the pain dictated by the loss of the loved one. And thus one finds oneself wandering in oblivion, just as Orpheus did after losing Eurydice, in a black and dark place where no light penetrates and where there is nothing to do but wander aimlessly in despair. This state leads to the second track "Wish". Here it is the hatred towards a joyful nature that grazes the listener's suffering body that dominates the scene. It is certainly the darkest track of the three, and it opens with the singer's growl crying out his despair and anger to the world. In the middle of the song, the tones become more subdued, the guitar weaves a more melodious web and the voice returns baritone, one is cradled in this hypnotic ancestral dance. The track then closes with the sweet guitar arpeggio leading to the last black pearl of the EP: "Of Sorrow Blue". If "Eternal Autumn" was the transposition of despair and "Wish" was that of anger, finally, with "Of Sorrow Blue", the moment of surrender arrives. One surrenders to one's fate, no longer resists, and lets oneself fall helpless while the growl alternates with the singer's baritone voice and while the guitar and the violin, making its first appearance within the work, create beautiful melodic intervals that with their dualism bring an end to the suffering.

This beautiful work, with a total duration of thirty minutes, manages to take the listener to another dimension, where it is impossible to find sensations other than those classic of the most extreme doom: pain, despair, and claustrophobia. It has no particular weaknesses, everything is in its place as you would want it to be, and the only negative note is in the overall length of the work. It would have been wonderful to extend this EP with another song, transforming it into a full album. But it is also true that emotions are not timed, they are lived intensely from beginning to end and, this Swedish-made package, is full of feelings. Consequently, all that remains to do is play the CD, lie down on the bed, and close your eyes. Your imagination will do the rest.

Rating 78/100.