Forgotten Tomb-Under Saturn Retrograde

Agonia
2011

This is the fifth full length album from Forgotten Tomb. Forgotten Tomb play a brand of blackened doom with the a rather lonely frequently gloomy feel to many of the songs. Yet it's a mood they are very well suited for creating. The music changes varying from simple drudge to frequently very melodic pieces that briefly take the mood up a little. Several tracks feature several tempo changes while other seem all to content to drone on in the same pitch. That second approach does hold the album back to some extent. I get the impression they are going more for atmosphere than just being technically impressive and that's a fine goal. Several times I could close my eyes and imagine this being the soundtrack as I walked through a woods as a dark storm was coming. On other occasions I just found myself waiting for the song to end because they do try to stretch a few riffs a bit further than they are capable of. Overall I think they achieved the sound they aimed for and remained fairly interesting along the route.