The Messenger, Murdered.

A Long Forgotten Powr is an atmospheric black metal band hailing from Texas. With regards to their music, I must make a confession: I have been in personal contact with Sean Carroll for several months and consider him a friend. If all goes well, my own band will soon record a split with his. Despite this, I intend to give this an objective review. Yes, this is written with the intent of getting more people to buy or listen to Sean’s work. But so are my Hell and Brown Jenkins reviews. I write to hopefully expose people to great music they wouldn’t have otherwise have heard, and this case is identical to those. I will use my enhanced knowledge of the album, and the circumstances regarding it, to explain the shortcomings when they appear, rather than glossing over them out of friendship.

ALFP (as they shall be known for the remainder of this review) is attempting to create a very atmosphere driven type of black metal. The music utilizes several very odd melodies and the lyrics deal with various themes involving philosophy and magic. The cornerstone of the music is the guitars. They generally play fairly fast, high riffs in an ethereal style. The best of these are the single note riffs that evoke very odd, original images. The more standard black metal riffs, while not as evocative, are still quite well done. The bass is audible, although not very clearly throughout the majority of the album. It has a few breaks and interludes, which are quite interesting.

The drums, or rather, the lack thereof, are the biggest flaws on the album. Due to the purpose of the release, having drumming would be completely paradoxical – this was released as a fundraiser to procure a drum set, and from what I understand, Sean is learning to play the drums in order to do so on future releases - , but it doesn’t change the fact that their absence wounds the album. This causes the songs to occasionally have a rather formless nature, and prevents the music from attaining the necessary aggression and forward drive that some parts call for.

The vocals form a major part of the band’s sound, and their performance and lyrics are one of Sean’s chief goals. They are quite varied, but generally retain a harshness and competence throughout. The lyrics will be discussed along with each track (due to the occasionally haphazard, and short, nature of this release, I will be discussing each of them). The production is quite raw as can be expected from a demo without professional recording equipment, but generally fits the music on each individual track. Unfortunately, this doesn’t carry throughout as there are several odd inconsistencies.

The demo starts with an instrumental intro entitled Aramis, which is the name of the composer’s fiancé. There is a brief ambient portion (and what sounds like a lighter, although I’m quite possibly mistaken) after which the guitars come in with a fairly simple riff, and a fairly clean tone, which is quite successful in establishing an image. The second track, A Thing of Beauty, comes in immediately afterwards and follows on what the intro started, flowing seamlessly together with it. More guitars are layered in, and the sonic plain becomes quite distorted, but this all works to the song’s advantage. The vocals are generally long, drawn out shrieks, but aren’t particularly aggressive. The lyrics are very interesting, and, while dealing with fairly clichéd subject matter, manage to approach it in an original fashion.

It’s with the second song, A Taste of Innocence that the first of the previously mentioned production hiccups comes into play. This is very much the kind of music which is put on while one leans back and lets it wash over them. As such, the sudden volume jump is jarring, to say the least. The song begins with a simple guitar riff which features some interesting bends. The song then lunges forward and a tremolo version of the riff comes in, causing the song to maintain a very frantic, but still ethereal feel. It’s in the more standard tremolo riff after this that drums are most sorely missed, for the riff lacks the necessary force to exist without them and the whole song generally sounds emptier than either of the earlier two (perhaps due to far less layering), which makes the missing instrument all the more noticeable. The final transition also feels very awkward, as the song pauses for an instant too long for the segue to be effective. The final portion where the bass is playing alone with the shrieks above it is very effective, though. This track features quite possibly my favorite lyrics on the album. Again, the themes aren’t particularly original in and of themselves but the phrasing and flow are incredible and remind me somewhat of Lovecraft’s writings, in feel if not in actual composition. A brief example would be: Your every muscle quivers/You’re so terrified of death/Lips collide beautifully/As I drink your last breaths.”

With When Eyes Shine With Lust, the volume recedes back to its previous level. The riffs, while still very original, also start to take on a Xasthur-esque feel, although this might be partially due to the denser production. This undoubtedly helps the song overcome the feeling of emptiness that the last one struggled with, but at the same time it attains a somewhat baseless feel due to the lack of anything concrete to anchor you to the song. The two main halves of the song transition fairly poorly between each other, and it almost feels like a completely different song, rather than two parts of the same whole. The vocals are quite odd sounding, and reinforce the twisted and insane nature of the lyrics. These deal with a wish to be dead. While some passages, such as, “O’ how I long to be a corpse/To lie eternal beneath a warm blanket of earth,” are very effective, a few other lines seem somewhat awkward when read, namely, “To achieve the sleep, at long last, eluding me as a mortal,” and one or two other small portions.

Whispers Heard on Northern Winds is at once a good follow up to With Eyes Shine With Lust, and a truly jarring transition. The denser, more distorted and Xasthur-like production is taken to its conclusion here, but the volume change is horridly jarring. The riff at around 0:40 bears an initial similarity to another that I’ve never been able to place, but soon changes direction altogether, and the following riff is wonderfully majestic. The transition to the latter portion of the song, close to the three minute mark, feels awkward, although what follows works quite well. This is the one song on the release were the vocals fail to work. They were supposed to be traditional shrieks, layered with whispers beneath them to supply a creepy feeling. Unfortunately, they end up sounding rather over-emotional, especially considering the somber lyrical matter and aloof riffing. The lyrics are a metaphor of meditation, if I’m correct, and while interesting, lack some of the eloquence that songs like A Taste of Innocence and When Eyes Shine With Lust displayed.

The next track is one that I must admit I was tempted to praise for something quite apart from musical merit. On this track me and Denis, who’s also in Whisper Supremacy, supplied the instrumentation while Sean Carroll did the vocals. It’s, sadly enough, the glaringly obvious weak link in the overall demo. It’s not a particularly bad cover, all the parts are adhered to well enough, but none of it ever accomplishes all that much, the sudden appearance of drums would no doubt be confusing to one ill-versed in the band’s history, and the far rawer production challenges the previously established atmosphere. Perhaps I’m being unfair, though, as I naturally dislike covers that don’t add much – as well as covers that leave the original song in the dust and do something entirely different. Seeing as I basically dislike covers in general, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that my own failed to excite me, so I’ll leave it at that.

ALFP’s music is quite interesting. The riff work is quite varied and unique. It’s unfortunate that the fluid nature of the riffs can feel quite formless in its current state, but I’m confident that the addition of drums will change this. The riff work shows clear influence from bands like I Shalt Become, Judas Iscariot and Burzum in composition and also in lyrics, while the production is occasionally reminiscent of Xasthur. It’s a very interesting demo overall, and since it’s free (all one has to do is email Sean at the address specified on the demo’s page) I can’t think of a reason why it doesn’t bear checking out.