Lista de Bandas Dark Ambient Forgotten Land (USA) Nachtkrieg

Simple "first-semester" German is common in black metal, but in black ambient? Two bands (one epic ambient and one black ambient) have combined under this simplistic foreign name to form a mold-breaking album. Uruk-Hai features on 30 minute long epic, while Forgotten Land has four not-so-long black ambient tracks. It seems as though Forgotten Land (as if realizing that collaborating two ambient bands together under such a rudimentary name isn’t normal) created his very first full-out black metal track.
I see this album as a story line and from start to finish is an epic story. So I will first present this story to you.

The story starts off on Forgotten Land's side, with the tracks “Nachtkrieg” and “At the Gates of Internal Sadness”. These aren’t the actual first tracks, however, my iPod has a peculiar shuffle function that I have yet to master, so the presented order I listened to the songs is the way they came out on my iPod. These tracks set the plot in motion by setting a very depressing mood. These songs told me a story of death, a death that caused anger, and formed enemies, and eventually started a war (a Nachtkrieg, if you will).

The story continues with the song “A Silent Tombe”. This is a very slow, melodic, and dark track. It is very similar in style to the works off Forgotten Land’s album Imbolc-Winter (http://www.metal-archives.com/release.php?id=188860). This song shows an encampment of soldiers on either line, preparing for the battle. They sit under a cold moon, during the most freezing months of winter. The army who experienced the traumatizing death in the beginning waits for the dead of night to strike. For now, though, they must wait.

Finally, all hell breaks out with the track “2911 Fell Winter”. This is the famed black metal track, an act that Forgotten Land has never performed before. This is the war song; it’s where all the action is. It is fast paced and hateful. And, to solidify this war-time status, Lord Raven even threw in the sounds of fighting upon horseback in at the beginning. It is unlike anything I have ever heard before from Forgotten Land.

Now we move into the aftermath of this violent war with the epic ambient band Uruk-Hai. The army served up vengeance to the other, with minimal losses on their side. This song describes it all with its title “Blood of Heroes”. This is the feast prepared for the warriors when they return home. The setting is a warm spring night, and the air is filled with content and festivity.

Let’s wrap up this review by summing up the pros. First off, I really like the cover art. I guess I’m just a sucker for blue tinted and dark album art. It represents a battle ground to me with what looks like a bunker on a hill which has smoke rising from the top and surrounded by dead trees. Ominous and dark clouds lurk over head, as if predicting a dreary ending for somebody. Another positive of this album is the quality of the CD itself. It comes packaged as a Pro CD in a jewel case with inlay and everything. This is the second CD to come as this format, which shows Lord Raven and all of DDR like to keep things professional. I really loved the atmosphere of Uruk-Hai’s track. It was very light and not necessarily happy, but certainly not depressing. I also liked the track “Nachtkireg” by Forgotten Land. It was on the opposite end of the spectrum (compared to Uruk-Hai). It was very slow, melodic, and depressing, which is one of the numerous styles of Forgotten Land. However, this track is very minimalistic. It’s unlike anything I have ever heard from FL, and it was interesting to hear a new style for the first time.

Now, for the con’s. Let’s start with Forgotten Land’s side. As a whole, his half seemed very repetitive; many of the songs were over 9 minutes long. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love long tracks (in fact, I usually prefer long tracks to short ones). However, these songs seemed to drag on and on. For example, in his song “At the Gates of Internal Sadness”, there is one incredibly slow piano playing what seems like the same notes for almost 10 minutes. I’m sure it’d be good music if I was, say, writing and essay, or completing some other laborious task that required nice flowing background music. However, I was not in that situation when I listened to the track, so monotony set in quickly. I think were this song lacked was its layers. Had it been more than just one piano playing (maybe with a couple synths or so) I would’ve enjoyed it more. I realized that I didn’t feel this boredom with Uruk-Hai’s song, which was about 3 times as long. I decided that if a song has more layers that alternate once in a while, it keeps me entertained all the while. Same principle applies to the song Nachtkrieg. It had various layers and alternations, which kept me entertained, and was about 12 minutes long. Also, I know that 2911 Fell Winter was Lord Raven’s first ever full-out over the top black metal song, so it’s obviously not going to be his best work, but I must say that I was not a fan of it. It had the same riff repeat the whole time basically (except for I believe once where the riff changed slightly). Also, something about the vocals sounded odd. They sounded almost unprofessional. I can’t really put my tongue on it; they just didn’t sit right with me. I listened to it again, and I think that they sounded too close, like if he was growling right next to you. Personally, I don’t like that. However, I can’t talk for ever metal fan, so you’ll just have to listen and see. As for Uruk-Hai’s half of the split, there really weren’t any personal qualms with the song, however, if you are not patient and cannot sit down and listen to one song for 30 minutes then this song isn’t for you. If you need a nice flowing song as background music when you’re working (like what I was doing while I listened to it) this song works perfectly.

Overall this was a pretty good split. It’s not the best material I’ve heard from Forgotten Land; however, it’s not my least favorite of his albums. So I would recommend it to anyone wanting an ambient journey like no other. You can buy this split at http://www.dungeonsdeep.com/024.html.