Marblebog
Forestheart

Released in 2005 along with "Winds Of Moor Forestheart," it is the second full-length by the Hungarian one-man band Marblebog, which since 2007 features Caseres on drums.

An album that easily fits into the tradition of Eastern European ambient black: atmosphere, darkness, nature, starting from the "Opening", where the light is gradually eclipsed by a mantle of keyboards and the sounds of a forest awakening at night. The subsequent "I am The Forestheart" has the task of breaking the silence, bursting forth with a sharp, driving riff, where for the first time a corrosive voice is inserted, confirming, if there was still any doubt, that desolation will be the only companion for another good fifty minutes. The central arpeggio, however, does not take long to reveal the main flaw of the work; despite maintaining a decent evocative charge, the album betrays echoes that are a bit too explicit from other European bands, in this case, one could mention Drudkh just to name one. "Flame Of Wisdom" has a decidedly doom-inspired appearance, a melancholic guitar riff, immersed in the very dirty and blurred recording, a main characteristic of the album that makes it even more unhealthy. "Closing" completes the circle, thirteen minutes in which increasingly invasive percussion follows in the first part, loaded with threats in the dark tapestry of keyboards, to eventually give way to an ever-distorted guitar advancing where the rest has been destroyed, celebrating its defeat. Forestheart certainly neither invents nor renews anything, some passages perhaps need reviewing, but it is a raw work that never falls into the banal.

The idea that emerges at the end of the listening is that this is just a premise and that the next work will represent a higher point. And since only splits have been released in the meantime, I hope the wait will be short.