Песнью в жатве горя / As a Song in the Harvest of Grief

In my last review, I covered Forest's last album "Foredooming the Hope for Eternity", which officially marked Forest's signature sound of a more melodic and grand style of Russian black metal when compared to the darker and more melancholic sound of Branikald. Not only that, but this style will only be doubled down in their next album "As a Song in the Harvest of Grief" in 1999. And not only is this as good as the last album, but in some aspects, it does better.

The album begins with a nearly 7-minute long intro track that mainly consists of a raw guitar playing a dark and melancholic riff that repeats through much of the track. While there is a bit of Branikald influence on this track, it still has that grand atmosphere that Forest did in the last album. Eventually, we fade in the next track "В дыханья грудь", and this is where things get insane. The once droning riffs is now a fast and raw riff that plays a very depressing riff. The Branikald influences become much more apparent here, as it does borrow some of the sorrow feelings from that band, while also mixing it with the grand feelings of Forest. The drumming is also a lot more intense when compared to previous Forest albums, as the beatings are more powerful, and the blastbeats are sped up to create a more fierce tone in the atmosphere. Despite a more depressive tone, the instrumentals still remain true in providing a melodic and beautiful sound, which is only further enhanced throughout this album. While some tracks like "Песнью в жатве горя" are still melodic, others like "Духа палеву" still do borrow much from the darker portions of Branikald and offer a more darker and doleful landscape in the album. Overall, this album is perfect at blending in darkness with atmospheric melodic bits, which are only further executed with the effective composition.

And much like the previous album, the vocals work so well with the instruments. As expected, the vocals haven't changed much in delivery, as the screams and shrieks are still the same, which at this point, might seem like a bad thing. However, when paired up with these types on instrumentals, it's far from being bad. An excellent example of this is in the track "Лей, кровавая пена", which is another one of the darker tracks on here. Kaldrad adds in a bit of chanting in his screams, which make them boom more with pride and add in more hatred within the track. And as for the more melodic songs like "Песнью в жатве горя", the vocals enhance the sorrow and depressive elements with their painful screams. Kaldrad is probably one of the few vocalists out there that can produce the same sound, yet still sound fresh and interesting, and this album is no exception.

Forest has really outdid it this time. While the previous album was more melodic and atmospheric, this one takes more influences of its darker counterpart Branikald, and transforms the signature Forest sound into something that is more dark and creepy, but still makes the more melodic moments all the more better. This would be the last album Forest released in a while, but at that point, this was seen as yet another win in their fantastic discography.