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Suicide Forest

by Suicide Forest

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brantly
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brantly Though not reinventing the genre, SF play a very good post-Xasthur style of mid-paced, dispirited black metal that sometimes can enter into some of the same realms as a dronier version of Ash Borer, or even some of the hyper-oppressive Velvet Cacoon material, and sometimes even doing some synth-y Darkspace style of blurry ennui-laden laments. This record got better with successive listens and comes recommended for sure!
H.L.
H.L. thumbnail
H.L. SUICIDE FOREST are masters of creating very dense depressive atmospheres. Ingredients are spheric sounds, reverbering rough vocals, a certain monotony and recurrence of themes. This has a quite hypnotic effect, no matter if there is a creeping slow passage or a blasting aggressive passage. All is welded together seamlessly in a really catchy way for a depressive black metal album. An intense experience and everything else than boring! Favorite track: Kingdom of Solitude.
Paintingmantis
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Paintingmantis Love this album. Fills me with melancholy to the core . . . Inspiring 10/10
Dave Aftandilian
Dave Aftandilian thumbnail
Dave Aftandilian Powerful, isolating, endlessly despairing DSBM, with nicely varied tempos and icy-cold raspy corpse vocals. Standing in this crowded place, I am completely alone. No one sees or understands me. If I died, no one would care—not even me. Yet still I live, cursed with breath and hope.
FallenAngel
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FallenAngel What a trip! Close your eyes and hold my cold hands on our dark descent.
Michael Hojjatie
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Michael Hojjatie Read my review for ViaOmega here:

www.viaomega.com/articles/suicide-forest-self-titled-album-review Favorite track: Baptized in Pools of Despondency.
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    Released by Avantgarde Music (sold out with them) and limited to 200.

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  • Limited Edition Cassette
    Cassette + Digital Album

    Silver cassette, hand numbered and hand dubbed by Akashic Envoy Records. Only 25 have been created. The cover was designed specifically for the cassette release to coincide with a west coast tour in August 2019.

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    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Released by Avantgarde Music (sold out with them) and limited to 100. Special Ox Blood vinyl edition.

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1.
Isolated without hope, Haunted by dreams Alone in the morose silence, Unable to speak Locked away, From this loathsome world Far from all whom I despise Cold air infects my lungs, As I gasp my dying breath All consuming, this atmosphere of endless plight Engulfing my poisoned mind All that once was, Never again shall be As I enter my Kingdom of Solitude
2.
As you stand rooted in the Earth before me I gaze upon your branches Who once were the instruments of my demise Suspended, my feet above ground Nearly lifeless I swing Only when the all consuming blackness began to set in Did your sturdy arms fail to hold Robbed of my freedom, my young mind defeated With the twine still firmly constricting my throat I opened my eyes, With the cold, solid Earth at my back I look upon your branches With bloodshot, innocent eyes
3.
No Cold Steele, no course fibers No Intoxicating liquids will heal me Here I stand beneath cloud covered skies Lamenting all that is. Though I long to drink my last drop, Though I welcome my end I remain upon this wretched world Until this existence destroys me. All that I am, All that I've had Is tainted and robbed of its essence All that remains is my persistence to be The architect of my own demise.
4.
5.
Sea of Trees 09:14
Alone, far from all I revel in solitude Beneath grey skies Amongst the trees I shall be Away from this world, I exist Far beyond the reach of man So that I may rest and have piece Cast away on this island Upon the Sea of Trees A figure cloaked in mist Alone in the silent darkness Barely a human remains Merely the shell of what once was As emptiness is all that remains Cast away on this island Upon the sea of trees
6.
This barless cell of solitude So cold, so bleak Yet it’s blackness Brings me the comfort That life could not Frozen stone Gelid my pale flesh My icy breath Fades into blackness I dare not attempt To escape this unfeeling tomb For the morose stone walls Shield me from the loathsome world

about

Aokigahara, also known as the Sea of Trees, is a 35 square kilometer forest just to the northwest of Japan’s Mt. Fuji. It’s the second most popular place in the world to commit suicide after the Golden Gate Bridge. In 2003, the last year Japanese authorities released official numbers, 105 bodies were found in the forest. The actual number of suicides, however, is nearly impossible to determine, since the dense vegetation and abundant wildlife within the forest can make it difficult to locate and recover bodies.

For a depressive black metal band, any name that references Aokigahara probably seems a bit too on the nose. When that band is as good as Tucson-based Suicide Forest, however, it can be called anything the musician wants.

Suicide Forest is the brainchild of 23-year-old multi-instrumentalist Austin Kruger, who self-released a trio of demos between July 2016 and July 2017: Emptiness, Indifference, and Apathy. The first two were compiled under the name Descend Into Despair and re-released first on cassette in 2017 by Fólkvangr Records, and then on Digital/CD/LP earlier this year by Ascension Monuments Media. With each successive release, Kruger’s performances sound increasingly more confident, and the songwriting is increasingly more daring as a result.

Now, with the impending release of Suicide Forest’s self-titled full-length, Kruger is poised to be mentioned in the same company as the Scott Connors, Jef Whiteheads and Sin Nannas of the music world. Exalted company to be sure, but perhaps not the best points of comparison for the remarkable achievement that is Suicide Forest. Kruger may well have more in common with some of the great auteurs from the world of film like Orson Welles, Jean-Luc Godard, or Francois Truffaut, making Suicide Forest the band’s Citizen Kane, À bout de souffle, or Les Quatre Cents Coups: a towering debut that both acknowledges the work that came before it and completely rewrites the rules of the game.

Suicide Forest was engineered by Frank Bair, and mixed and produced in Tucson by A. Kruger with additional production by Chris Wisco (Broken Hope, Jungle Rot, Origin, Novembers Doom), and mastered at The Boiler Room in Chicago by Collin Jordan (Bongripper, Cough, Eyehategod, Gigan). Between the three of them, they dialed the exact sound an album like this deserves: clean enough that the nuances of Kruger’s songwriting can be appreciated, but not so clean that it loses any of that all-important black metal atmosphere.

From the driving rhythms and ethereal keyboard accents of opener “Kingdom of Solitude,” through the despairingly beautiful piano interlude “Baptized in Pools of Despondency,” to the lengthy sample from Jim Jones’s last speech exhorting his followers to commit ‘revolutionary suicide’ at the end of closing track “Cold Dark Comfort,” Suicide Forest is nothing short of a watershed release for depressive black metal. Follow its trail deep into the woods, and join with the dead already residing there…
-Clayton Michaels, Senior Editor, Indy Metal Vault

credits

released October 26, 2018

“Suicide Forest” was recorded during the Winter/Spring of 2018 by A. Kruger and Frank Bair. Mixed and produced by A. Kruger with additional production by Chris Wisco. “Baptized in Pools of Despondency” recorded with assistance from R.B. “Lord Beta” Honeycutt. Mastered by Collin Jordan.

All music and lyrics by A. Kruger. All instruments performed live by A. Kruger.

Cover art painted by Lariyah Hayes. Logo by Adrian Daley.
Special thanks: Zak Giguere, Abigail Codru, Adrian Daley, Leanne Miller, Blake Judd, Erica Blaney, Nic Huber, Mark Addington at Folkvngr Records, and Crow Prints.

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Suicide Forest Tucson, Arizona

Depressive Black Metal from Tucson, Arizona.

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