The Old Forest

As a musical entity, Erebos is very recent, having been founded as such this year (2017) by musician Erebos who happens to have quite a CV playing in other BM acts. Erebos (the project) is a solo atmospheric BM act dedicated to the work of J R R Tolkien. This EP release "The Old Forest" though is all-instrumental so it can be enjoyed by those of us not necessarily enamoured of the worlds of Middle Earth or its inhabitants. True, the way the EP begins - it's all just the one track by the way - might be cringe-inducing with the blowy winds and the magpies doing their kraak-kraak routine but the dreary atmospheric effects and noises are shoved aside by mournful droning keyboards and a gabbled medley of whispering voices. The droning actually isn't too bad even though I must confess I've heard a lot of this low-end churning before and it's not very original music, apart from someone quietly and slowly bouncing a tennis ball in the background to create and develop a gentle beat.

The really, re-e-eally interesting work kicks in halfway through with insistent percussion and a wall of gritty, oily guitar noise that floors everything before it. Oh sure, it doesn't last long so you just enjoy it while it lasts. The boring symphonic keyboards-dominated music rears its head again and so a mix of this and the tougher, gritter BM do battle for several minutes. We have some real tension between the barely restrained guitar keening and thudding percussion on the one hand and the synthesised organs and pianos on the other. I really wish that the fight between these sets of instruments would escalate to some deranged and hysterical climax, where they all collapse together into one unhinged hybrid monster that then sets off towards the setting sun, intent on conquering the world - but, erm, that wish must remain in my fantasy world.

As it is, the EP is pleasant enough but it's not outstanding in any way. The good thing about it is that at least Erebos the musician gets this stuff out of his system so he can do something more interesting in future releases with this project and others.