Dead and Forgetten - The Tempest (2003), Ars Moriendi (2004) & Strix sive de ludificatione daemonum (2008)

From Italy, Dead and Forgotten.

Alessandria, Italy (2001 - present)
Dead and Forgotten is a solo project Depressive Black Metal \ Anarcho-Pagan Black Metal was born in 2001 in Alexandria, characterized by extremely cold atmosphere and decadent that draw the listener in the desolate moors of loneliness and depression.

The first two demos dating back to 2002 and 2003 ('The Tempest'), for the Intolerant Records. In 2004 he released the magnificent EP 'Ars Moriendi' (Winter Records),composed five pieces that will form in 2008 ( along with three previously unreleased songs ), thefirst full- length album, 'Strix sivede ludificatione daemonum ' .

You can listen to some songs on the band's myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/deadandforgotten17.

- Quote (translated) lastfm.it ("Dead and Forgotten")


It's also notable as far as ideology goes, this band has strong beliefs for both the liberation of animals and nature. Another band for those into the vegan ethic.

Sound-wise, this is very much a lo-fi production, with that depressive drone. Akin to some Burzum, and the like. Not bad really, but yet not strikingly different to similar sounding bands in my opinion. Though, I haven't listened to all of their recordings yet.


Recommend for those into such politics and sound (as opposed to the usual Cascadian BM).

Album Name: The Tempest

Band: Dead and Forgetten

Genre: Black Metal

Year: 2003

Country: Italy

Track Listing:

1.	Flesh Cages	03:15
2.	The Wisdom Tree	03:28
3.	The Tempest	03:35
4.	Beyond The Putrefaction	03:52
Total playing time		14:10

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Album Name: Ars Moriendi

Band: Dead and Forgetten

Genre: Black Metal

Year: 2003

Country: Italy

Track Listing:

1.	Detail of Hell	06:42
2.	Interlude I	01:02
3.	The Wounds are Never Healed	06:21
4.	Interlude II	01:20
5.	The End of Winter	06:43
Total playing time		22:08

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the 5 songs from Ars Moriendi + 3 unreleased songs.

- Quote metal-archives.com ("Dead and Forgotten")

Album Name: Ars Moriendi

Band: Dead and Forgetten

Genre: Black Metal

Year: 2008

Country: Italy

Track Listing:

1.	Waiting Again	07:39
2.	As A Dying Tree	05:00
3.	The Darkest Room	06:34
4.	Detail Of Hell	06:44
5.	Interlude I	01:04
6.	The Wounds Are Never Healed	06:24
7.	Interlude II	01:23
8.	The End Of Winter	06:43
Total playing time		40:11

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When Bitter Springs Sleeps - When Bitter Springs Sleeps (2008)

And now a little bit more on When Bitter Spring Sleeps.

Black Metal Rituals inspired by, performed and recorded in a nature preserve environment blending true night sounds and black metal - Nature sounds in the live tracks are NOT samples mixed with the music - but the actual surrounding atmosphere while the music was being performed and recorded.in the forest. When Bitter Spring Sleeps is an ultimate atmospheric black metal experiment to commune with nature in a truly pagan and ritualistic manner. Organic analog beauty drawing main influences from Nature, Ritual, Paysage D’Hiver, Njiqahdda, Darkspace.

- Quote paganflames.com

WBBS are from Iowa (USA), comprised of the members Lord Sardonyx and Syntax A, both also of the band Satan's Almighty Penis.

And we briefly looked at WBSS with their recent split release with Panopticon. Quite a solid release, most notably I appreciated the WBSS side, given it's improvement in production and all-round better composition of music.

Their previous release, a self-titled demo, I share with you now. However, this original release of their's never really grabbed my attention. Though quite interesting and unique in that the album was recorded in a nature reserve (as opposed to the nature sounds being electronically incorporated), it just really didn't work for me. Poor quality production. The mixture of natural sounds and instruments didn't fit to me. Perhaps the natural sounds were somewhat overbearing. A bit too lo-fi generally, though some might dig that. But I certainly didn't forget them for such a memorable concept.

Obviously, really not my thing, but I do very much reccommend to check out the split with Panopticon.

WBSS @ myspace

Album Name: When Bitter Springs Sleeps

Band: When Bitter Springs Sleeps

Genre: Black Metal/Ambient

Year: 2008

Country: USA

Track Listing:

1.	What The Rain Knows	08:43
2.	Tears For The Sounds Of Darkness	14:28
3.	Beneath Mother Moon	07:22
Total playing time		30:34

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Nechochwen - Algonkian Mythos (2008) & Azimuths to the Otherworld (2010)

And some Native American stuff from the US.

The name Nechochwen literally means “walks alone” in the Lenni Lenape (Delaware) language.  It was a name given to me about 16 years ago by a friend.  It’s not necessarily an “alter ego” or stage name, just another name I am known by.  I started recording music under the name Nechochwen to connect with other musicians and people with an interest in early American history and American pre-history.  I am using the sounds available to me to create musical textures and scenes representative of western Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley in years past.

When Angelrust folded... ... I decided to concentrate on this music for a while and explore the Indian side of my ancestry a bit more.

- Quote here.

Nechochwen are a project of Aaron Carey (also of Angelrust and Harvist) expressing the Native American Indian side of his ancestry. Again, this stuff is heavy on the folk elements, which by no means demeans it, but infact emphasizes the pagan/folk/cultural/indig elements trying to be expressed in this music. To a lesser degree, there are doom/black metal parts to give it that extra kick, that raw angry emotion, just in case you thought the history of indigenous people in the US (and elsewhere) was all flowery.

Pretty cool stuff, especially if you're all about the folk.

Personally, I'd love a bit more metal in it for me. But it's still really amazingly beautiful. Soothing and calm.

By the way, Andrew Della Cagna is a guest on some of the music here.

Nechochwen @ myspace

Peter: The new album Algonkian Mythos tells stories of your Native ancestors.  What do you hope the listener will get from listening to the album?
Nechochwen: The album’s subject matter is the Northeastern United States in the second half of the eighteenth century into the early nineteenth century.  Not all of the topics or characters are Algonquian in origin, some are Iroquoian.  All these people interacted and either directly or indirectly affected each others’ way of life and belief systems.  I want the listener to learn something and get transported to that dark era.  For those who are already familiar with this subject, this music is for you.  These are compositions to keep history alive.  Try to picture the sights and smells that go along with the music.

- Quote here.

Album Name: Algonkian Mythos

Band: Nechochwen

Genre: Folk/Black Metal

Year: 2008

Country: USA

Track Listing:

1.	A Blistering Fusilade	00:53
2.	Fallen Timbers	04:45
3.	Algonkian Mythos	05:28
4.	Coffin of the Flesh	02:45
5.	Talgayeeta	04:00
6.	Gnadenhutten	03:57
7.	Cut-ta-ho-tha	03:53
8.	Pilawah	02:00
9.	Nilu-Famu	07:19
10.	West Across the Missi-theepi	03:48
Total playing time		34:56

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Album Name: Azimuths to the Otherworld

Band: Nechochwen

Genre: Folk/Black Metal

Year: 2010

Country: USA

Track Listing:

1.	Allumhammochwen: The Crossing	07:52
2.	At Night I May Roam	04:01
3.	Gissis Mikana	04:18
4.	Red Ocher	06:04
5.	The Eyes of the Mesingw	01:45
6.	Charnel House	04:38
7.	Graves of Grandeur	03:22
8.	Confluence	03:10
9.	Noameatha, You Are the Ghost in the Water	02:30
10.	The Forgotten Death Ritual	01:41
11.	Hunting Among the Stars	03:43
12.	Four Effigies	08:52
13.	Azimuths to the Otherworld	05:30
14.	Graves of Grandeur (Reprise)	03:23
Total playing time		59:36

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In the Sea of Trees - Demo I (2010)

I'm not the first to share this (honestly, I rarely am), but I'll share this anyway.

In the Sea of Trees is an LA-based project, and straight from the source's mouth:

In the Sea of Trees inspired by the aokigahara forest of mt. fuji. My music is somewhere between (post) folk/black metal/ neofolk along with more traditional folk musics (old time, bluegrass, gypsy, celtic). I play Mandolin, Violin, Acoustic Bass, Saw, and Washboard in these songs. I am planning on adding acoustic guitar, some percussion and banjo on my upcoming songs. 

While my music is completely instrumental I am completely outspoken about a lot of issues such as green anarchy, veganism, feminsim, anti-racism, etc... pro-equality, pro-collapse.

Aokigahara (青木ヶ原), also known as the Sea of Trees (樹海, Jukai), is a 35 km² forest that lies at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan. The forest contains a number of rocky, icy caverns, a few of which are popular tourist destinations.
The forest, which has a historic association with demons in Japanese mythology, is a popular place for suicides; in 2002, 78 bodies were found, despite numerous signs, in Japanese and English, urging people to reconsider their actions.
Due to the wind-blocking density of the trees, and an absence of wildlife, the forest is known for being eerily quiet.

- Quote Wikipedia ("Aokigahara")


In the Sea of Trees is certainly beautiful acoustic music. Melodic folk at it's best. I can definitely see how it is influenced by, of course folk, but also folk (black) metal (specifically of the North American variety). However, I do not see where any BM is present. Perhaps it will surface in later releases, or perhaps I simply have misunderstood the description given to me about this music. Irrespective of that, I love it. And with solid radical left and green politics to match, it's definitely something worth checking out.

And by the way, this is perhaps some less "happy" folk than say Blackbird Raum, for those interested in such.

http://www.last.fm/music/In+the+Sea+of+Trees

Album Name: Demo I
Band: In the Sea of Trees
Genre: Folk
Year: 2010
Country:
Track Listing:

1.	Decaying Existence	09:57
2.	Downcast and Lurid	04:47
3.	The Darkening Skies	03:30
4.	The Discontention	06:31
Total playing time		24:45

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Some words on this blog...

So I have really been enjoying doing this blog for the last few months and hope a few people out there appreciate what I share. And of course I thank those who I find out about some of the amazing music out there.

I would also like to apologise for the dropping frequency of posts here. I guess I was excited and had alot of access to the internet when I began, and now I have to put more effort in to do the posts I do. Having the nature politics I do, I really shouldn't spend too much time on the internet, but this indeed is a primary reason for me being on the internet fairly regularly. Though of course I have a permaculture internship that I'm about to start to concentrate on. I will try to keep this blog going as much as I can though, so it's all good.

In regards to the music I post on here, and their politics, I would like to apologise for pretty much not talking much about given band's politics unlike I did towards the beginning of the blog. My justification is simply that many bands that might have really good lyrical themes, often express them in not so overt ways. So if I don't really mention politics, than such lyrics are not so obvious or overt. Whereas if it is, of course I'll mention it. And on top of that, I try to cover as much information as I can about given bands from other sources that I quote, thus making too much more talk on such matter less necessary.

Lastly, something I keep on close eye on while posting on here are the counters (flags and popular posts respectively). It's interesting to see the changes within these, and it's nice to see Corubo is still holding out on all the American bands for the most popular post. However, the flag counter I examine more. I find there is obviously some correlation between the countries of the bands I post, and the countries of the people who most regularly frequent this blog. And of course there's the correlation of this blog being in English and English speaking countries dominating. But what I am really interested in, is the countries that rate high on this flag counter that I'm not aware of having distinct radical environmentalist movements, or even bands that express thus.

Bulgaria anyone (at this rate, they will probably overtake my own country on the flag counter!)?

So of course, anyone from nations (this should be obvious, but I am anti-state and anti-borders) that are not represented here, I'd love you to tell me about projects from your countries that would be good to share here, perhaps even your own.

Okay, I think that's all for now. Thanks for reading, and listening of course.


If you haven't spend any time in the forest lately, maybe you should. It's REAL black metal you know.

Panopticon - On The Subject Of Mortality (2010)

And more from Panopticon, however, as noted on the RABM blog (where I give credit for getting this), this release contains nothing entirely new, as the contents of this is comprised of Panopticon's recent split's with Skagos and WSS.

So I post this pretty much just for the sake of completeness than for anything distinctly new.

Album Name: On The Subject Of Mortality
Band: Panopticon
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Year: 2010
Country: USA

1.	Living In The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death	11:34
2.	Living Eulogy	07:33
3.	To Make In Idol Of Our Fear And Call It God	06:30
4.	A Mesage To The Missionary	07:06
5.	...Seeing	08:08
6.	Watching You	09:14
Total playing time		50:05

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Personally, I am eager for the apparent Panopticon split with Wheels Within Wheels - a favourite BM act if mine, who I'll cover more when this next split comes out.