In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead

After going back to revisit this Swedish band's debut, I find that it holds up so much better than its follow-up Ancient God of Evil. There is a certainly raw brutality that whittles its melodic elements down to an eerie science, and despite its primal production standards, there remains a dire charm to its songwriting, with a woodsy permeating darkness that clings like a fog to the listener, an almost thematic adherence to its title. In fact, though I was impressed with the band's recent return In the Light of Darkness, I am juggling it back and forth in my mind with this to determine which is better. I believe I'm going to have to call this a draw...

Unanimated were one of the formative bands of the melodic death metal surge in the early 90s, but for some reason they did not strike gold like At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity or the later In Flames. It may have something to do with the band's insistence on keeping it much more in the death metal sphere than the uber catchy songwriting those others would soon commit themselves towards. In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead has its own share of glorious picking lines, but you always feel as if the zombies are about to catch up with you and take you down. Micke Jansson's vocals are gruff and paralytic, and the guitar tones burn with a carnal crunch.

"At Dawn" is an intro with some reverse guitars that shifts into proper acoustics and whispers, before the trotting gait of "Whisper Shadows" arrives like a morning dew over a field of carnage and slaughter. "Blackness of the Fallen Star" has a thrifty, nasty guitar line which would have felt good even on a black metal album, and "Fire Storm" opens with powerful, sweeping organs that create a stark contrast with its bludgeoning old school death metal and thrashing rhythms. "Storms from the Skies of Grief" has a nice Western feel to it, created by the lush acoustics and bluesy opening lead, but soon lurches into a slower paced, death/doom track. "Through the Gates" is another hell-fueled black/death hybrid with some mean guitar lines, and "Wind of a Dismal Past" balances a slow glory to some raging pick-ups.

"Silence Ends" is another cool, but brooding intro piece, with dark ambiance and swelling, tormented tones, prefacing the evil of "Mournful Twilight", with its shadowy, twisting grooves and pure guttural throat horror. The title track arrives in a cloud of fog and batwings, an eerie choral synth striking like the knell of a Satanic church bell before the clasp of its bleeding melodies. "Cold Northern Breeze" takes a turn for the more epic, like a primal pagan metal anthem with majestic overtones, and the album ends with a fairly cool cover of Venom's "Buried Alive", all dirt and crunch and drunken memories.

In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead was pretty good for 1993, when only the faintest traces of this style were starting to emerge out of the more aggressive Swedish death scene led by Entombed and Dismember. There is an edge of black metal aesthetic here, and this is one of those albums you can put in your stereo on a stormy, dark night around a campfire with your friends and totally get high too, while the spirits of the dead gather 'round to mock you.

Highlights: Fire Storm, Storms from the Skies of Grief, Wind of a Dismal Past, Cold Northern Breeze

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

If you like the true, old school melodic death metal you cannot overlook a group that made history in this field. Unanimated are a real legend for this genre, being one of the very first to play this kind of death metal. They were formed in 1988 but their debut is from 1993 and it’s this “In the Forest of the Dreaming Dead” that it’s still regarded as a milestone in a different genre of conceiving the death metal.

The production is still a bit skinny and dry out and the death metal influences are still a bit preponderant, along with a black feeling that was inevitable for the period. The influences of the early masters of this genre, At The Gates, is present but somehow they added something new in the lead guitars lines and in the general melodies. The raw, fast sound reminds me the one we could find in “The Read in the Sky is Ours” but let’s analyse this album more deeply.

The arpeggio and the ethereal vocals at the beginning of “At Dawn-Whispering Shadows” have inside something new for the genre. It’s not yet the too melodic approach of some bands we can find nowadays, but checking the parts in which the electric guitars are more present, we can already find the melodic lines. They are always well balanced with others that differ in violence, being more vicious, but they were very good at throwing a stone further in the panorama.

The vocals too, are more suffered and somehow they reminded a sort of raw, primordial sound. The fast solos and the adjoined of this kind of vocals reminded me early Bathory too…I don’t know if this affirmation is too audacious but each one sees inside the music what he wants. Anyway, going on listening to this CD that atmosphere is becoming truly black and dark. There’s no light and in some songs, the black metal influences are heavily present, throwing away the melodies to prefer the darkness (“Blackness of the Fallen Star” and “Fire Storm”).

There are some keyboards parts too but my idea is that they wanted to use them just to add something more in darkness and obscurity. They generally have a weird feeling and in “Storms from the Skies of Grief” are perfect to accompany the melodic guitars lead lines in creating a truly apocalyptic and epic piece of music. This part is awesome with less screamed vocals and more melodies. This is the highlight of this album and one of the very first examples of melodic approach to death metal.

The other songs are characterized by a furious tremolo picking on the guitars and again pitch black atmosphere with growls and black metal passages where the keyboards leave their previous path to epic feeling to return to dark sounds. Check out also one of the very first expressions of sadly melodic sounds in “Wind of a Dismal Past”. Overall, this album is a true important piece of primordial melodic death metal but I feel to recommend it to the classic death metal lovers instead to the ones that use to listen nowadays “melodic death metal” (metalcore could be better). But, if you want to experience the roots of a genre anyway, Unanimated will welcome you.