FORGED IN BLACK "Descent of the Serpent"

FORGED IN BLACK

“Descent Of The Serpent”

I’ve been hearing some good things about this British band lately. Have to say that “Descent of the Serpent” will take more than one listen to fully appreciate. Despite a rather poor production where the bass and low end is virtually non-existent, the quality of the playing is impressive and the songwriting demonstrates a lot of influences from across the metal spectrum.

The band can be described as a mixture of traditional metal in the Priest/Accept vein, melodic thrash along the lines of Heathen and Forbidden and modern power metal, with no one style predominant. They’ve got a soulful and talented vocalist in Chris Stoz who has more than a little Geoff Tate/Todd de la Torre in him and  alsosome ripping twin guitarists in Andy Songhurst and Chris Bone. The first track “Seek No Evil” sets up a pretty standard metal sound, but things pick up steadily from there. When we get to the title track, the full range of Forged In Black is revealed. This is a really cool blast of melodic thrash that has a bit of a “Creeping Death” vibe to it. And this track seems to let the chains off, as the rest of the album shows a lot of range. “Palm of Silver” features some organ while “Vendetta” is a nice crisp power metal/ thrash hybrid and “When Hell Is Done” ends the album with a moody semi-ballad that has a good build to it.

The album gradually soaks into you until you realize it’s a strong debut. These guys have got to spend more money on production the next time around because the bass and drum sound here is so thin it hampers the overall product. But not to the point where you can’t recognize the promise in Forged In Black. A name for true metal fans to keep in mind.

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FORGED IN BLACK