Forest Stream; a name that conjures visions of...uh...forests and streams. No, this isn’t the popular redneck publication Field & Stream nor is it the incredibly awesome party store Florists and Streamers. Instead, Forest Stream is a heavy metal band hailing from Chernogolovka, Russia where the vodka flows free and bears ride unicycles with cute party hats on.
Forest Stream has been around for a while and apparently formed way back in 1995 but didn’t release their first full length Tears of Mortal Solitude until 2003. The Crown of Winter, released in 2009 by Candlelight Records, is Forest Stream’s sophomore effort that looks to be almost six years in the making. And no, you don’t have to be mega superstars to wait years before releasing albums. Even underground bands have that privilege. You can’t rush art! Unless you’re Jackson Pollock. I digress.
Honestly, when I first saw the name Forest Stream, I was expecting some gimmicky, keyboard-laden, operatic female-fronted garbage. Just as a qualifier, I don’t mind some of those bands. My metal tastes span over the entire genre. But The Crown of Winter is an eclectic and eccentric mixture of styles and moods. Clocking in at a nice 59.9 minutes and bookended by an intro and outro (there sure are a lot of those these days), Forest Stream has created a solid album.
It’s hard to pin down what exactly The Crown of Winter is trying to achieve or if it can even be pigeon-holed into one category. There are so many influences ranging from My Dying Bride and Morgion to Opeth, Emperor, Katatonia, and even Bathory. Do you like your morose moments of doomy despair? Yep, this album has them. How about blast beats? Check. The shortest song on the album is Bless You to Die which comes in at over seven minutes (plus it sounds exactly like Ihsahn may have lent a hand in crafting it). This isn’t an album you can just plop into the CD player...damn I’m old...I mean on the mp3 player at a party and expect everyone to love it in single-serving three to four minute tracks. This is an album you have to absorb when you have the time to sit and listen. It was perfect for me since it was raining and cold when I first received my copy. I’m usually outside in the sunny California desert burying dead hookers so this was a nice change.
Moving on.
What are my gripes? As much as I do like the mix of different influences throughout, I started to get frustrated with it. As I briefly mentioned above, the song Bless You to Die started blaring out of my speakers and I thought my mp3 player had skipped to Emperor. At other times I had to double-check and make sure Opeth wasn’t on. I think on one level, it works because they are drawing from some great influences and paying homage to them. On another level, it feels unoriginal and, to a lesser degree, almost plagiaristic. The Crown of Winter isn’t a focused release and I think Forest Stream is struggling to find a sound that stands out and which they can call their own.
With that said, I did like the album and believe Forest Stream has a lot of promise. They just need to release newer albums on a regular basis and find their musical niche. I give it 4 out of 5 dead hookers on my dead hooker music scale. Because I’m a classy kind of guy.
Review By:J Corpsemolester
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