It is hard to believe that it has already been a decade since FORGOTTEN TOMB’s eighth album, “Hurt Yourself and the Ones You Love,” was released on April 17th, 2015, via Agonia Records, to be precise. Nowadays, it is still among the finest offerings ever published by the Italian outfit. As the band set some rules of that subgenre labeled as DSBM [Depressive Suicidal Black Metal], they have always been bold enough to break those rules by enriching their own sound with many different influences and hints, safe in the awareness of their strong artistic identity. The album was recorded at Sound Suite Studio in France, under the keen eye of producer Terje Refsnes (CARPATHIAN FOREST, GEHENNA, DESTROYER666). It is a fine blend of black metal and sludge, a full-fledged step ahead in terms of songwriting, and the lyrics are among the best ones Ferdinando “Herr Morbid” Marchisio has ever written to date.
A remarkable promotional tour followed the album’s release, which saw the band on many European stages, supported by NOCTURNAL DEPRESSION. In August 2016, about one year after the album was released, the girl who posed for the cover artwork took her own life.* As sad as it can be, this unfortunate event surrounded the album with a mystic aura. Given the above, there is no weak tune in the opus, but one song in particular caught my attention since the first listening, and is still one of my all-time favorites: “Bad Dreams Come True.”
This song is a successful marriage between ALICE IN CHAINS’ peculiar sound and black metal, two sides of the ‘90s, a decade that, understandably, had a huge impact on Herr Morbid and his development as a musician and human being. The crushing weight of existence is conveyed through music and lyrics, alongside an explicit vindictiveness. Take for example the line “Sometimes I dream to travel back to times when I was young so I could enter high school with a gun and shoot down everyone”: just to be clear, I am not advocating school shootings here, but I do believe many of us have been feeling out of place in their teenage years, and anger and a desire for revenge were part of the game, and might still be there even many years after graduating…
Back to the album as a whole, it might be worth mentioning that the vocals have been recorded with a microphone that once belonged to Freddie Mercury, as weird as it may sound, and now I find myself fantasizing about its sense of timelessness as a consequence of this feature, although the album shows very specific details. The title track, for instance, is rooted in the band’s more doom-ish side, as crushing and slow paced but quite groovy at the same time, where intro and outro mirror each other in some sort of an eerie ouroboros.
“Mislead the Snakes” has lyrics that refer to a dream Herr Morbid had one night, and was co-written with bassist Algol. Snakes as a metaphor of deceit and manipulation are quite self-explanatory, as for the music, the tune is particularly complex and evocative, and even blends a spoken part taken from the movie Deadbeat at Dawn.
“Dread the Sundown” is an almost 10-minute-long, claustrophobic and horrific journey in the mind of a killer, and the longest tune featured on the record. Herr Morbid leaves nothing to chance, as his vocal performance sounds very varied and definitely makes the tune one of the highlights of their whole career. The instrumental “Swallow the Void,” composed by their former guitarist Andrea “A.” Ponzoni works as a perfect closure. Utterly melancholic and conveniently eerie, as it should be.
“Hurt Yourself and the Ones You Love” aged gracefully, and FORGOTTEN TOMB as a band has a lot to say, as proved album after album. This opus, specifically, holds a special place in my heart. No one makes despair look as beautiful as they do.
* If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, please know that you’re not alone. Help is available. For support, you can visit https://findahelpline.com to connect with free, confidential mental health services in your country.
Written by Licia Mapelli
Tracklist
- Soulless Upheaval
- King of the Undesirables
- Bad Dreams Come True
- Hurt Yourself and the Ones You Love
- Mislead the Snakes
- Dread the Sundown
- Swallow the Void
Lineup
Ferdinando “Herr Morbid” Marchisio – vocals, guitars
Alessandro “Algol” Comerio – bass
Andrea “A.” Ponzoni – guitars
Kyoo Nam “Asher” Rossi – drums
Label
Agonia Records
Links
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