Forgotten Land - Imbolc-Winter

There’s something about Forgotten Land that has always puzzled me. And that is that he’s known only amongst the metal community, primarily that of the fans of depressive black metal (like me). The thing is…he’s nowhere near metal at all. He only has ONE song that even has guitars. The rest of his material is all pure ambient keyboards and nature sounds; pretty much new age/spa music. And I do listen to that kind of music, but I would never expect to see an artist of that genre on Spirit of Metal, which is where I discovered him. But that aside, I still put Forgotten Land under depressive black metal (don’t ask me why ‘cause I don’t fucking know), and he produces the most beautiful music that has ever reached my ears. This is part three of a four part series where Forgotten Land would touch base with all four seasons. Unfortunately this is the last that we’ve heard from him. I don’t know where the hell he is now.

He started his own record label after receiving a good deal of success after releasing his first demo, Ancient Runic Sorcery. It has released a couple of albums from some other bands that I’ve never heard of (primarily ambient and depressive black metal artists), but otherwise there isn’t much else to it. Forgotten Land made one printing of 50 shirts, which all sold out within a week. Other than that, all that there is to buy from his record label are his CDs that come in a thin DVD case. I have already bought all of them and they’re beyond amazing.

The first song is what inspired the name of my depressive black metal solo project, Gethen. This song is very slow and very simple with few notes that eventually build into huge complex chords. This is a song that really touches me because of the entire atmospheric beauty it encircles me with whenever I listen to it. I don’t get all jittery and excited like I do when I listen to other stuff I like (i.e. Opeth, Augury, etc.); instead, I am put into a state of complete Zen and relaxation. For those of you that like to meditate at all, this is the PERFECT record for you.

Beneath the Glacier is an example of a Forgotten Land song with tons of nature sounds; starting with the intro filled with the sounds of water dripping off cave walls. This song takes you under the ice and puts you through absolute peace and serenity; leaving you very happy. The album continues to put you through a state of meditation and peace, and then comes the song I always look forward to whenever I listen to this record.

Snegurochka for some reason is my favorite song off this album. The reason why it doesn’t seem like it should is because it’s literally the same two notes throughout the entire song. But before you turn down this track, turn it on and close your eyes and imagine yourself walking through a forest covered with untouched snow, and let the music make everything around you more beautiful than it already is. This is the prettiest song off the album and if you want me to name a specific song that you should look up first, Snegurochka would be that song.

This is a MASTERPIECE regardless of what genre you want to place it in. Most of you may not know this but even though metal is my favorite kind of music, I listen to literally everything out there; and Forgotten Land has become one of my favorite non-metal bands. I would give this beautiful record a perfect score and would put it on full volume to show the world. I highly recommend that you pick up a physical copy of this because I don’t know how much longer it (and the rest of Forgotten Land’s albums) will be available. 

Please be aware that this is not the original album cover, this is my version of it.