And Nothing Shalt Remain

In the split release “And Nothing Shalt Remain”, two bands, quite well known to me, participate. The first band is Mourning Forest from France who had made me a quite good impression with their last album (De la Vermine) and they play a mix of French Black Metal with melancholic elements and nice rhythmic passages. The other band is the Greek Sad which consist of two members, was formed in 2005 and they have released four full length albums, one demo, one EP and five split albums. In this album they play harsh, melancholic Black Metal of Scandinavian sound. The two bands have offered five tracks each, of one hour of duration.

Mourning Forest show great progress in this album, they have corrected the mistakes of the past and concerning the composition, they have matured creating tracks with better structure and more interesting. Their riffs are fast, long and melancholic, most of the time they are fast with a lot of rhythmic passages. The guitars are clean and played perfectly, with much passion and feeling. May the bass’ lines not be heard clearly also in this album but it seems that they fill the sound very well giving the appropriate depth. Also the drums are played very well with interesting lines and nice turnings. The vocals are the ordinary Black Metal, harsh vocals which put out much passion and fit to the compositions. Concerning the production and the mix, the job that has been done is very good. The sound comes out clean, a little bassy but very powerful, while the guitars and the vocals are a little louder in the mix. The lyrics are written in French but I couldn’t understand much.

The second band of the split, Sad, play in their familiar style, that is high toned riffs with nice changes in the rhythm and a light sense of melancholy in the atmosphere. The high toned and long riffs switch with heavy creating a beautiful result breaking up the monotony. The guitars are clean but in some parts they faced a difficulty in delivering the riffs with accuracy and generally they cause a form of insecurity to the listener. The bass fills the sound well without his lines being clearly heard while the drums are well played with interesting lines and variety. The vocals are snaring, harsh Black Metal vocals, powerful but somewhat monotonous. The production is clean and rather bassy, it puts out a very nice and tight result. The mix has given priority to the guitars leaving the bass and the drums a little behind, but it puts out a quite massive sound. The lyrics are written in English and they are personal thoughts, fears, experience that the band shares with the listener.

Mourning Forest have made many steps forward since their last release, while the material of Sad is quite good. Generally in “And Nothing Shalt Remain” participate two good bands with common elements concerning the sound but also with the differences that make a split album interesting, with nice and interesting compositions and generally a quite high level. What I will keep for sure is the great development of Mourning Forest I hope that they keep it up. Buy the album or at least listen to it.