Forgotten Tomb – We Owe You Nothing (Review)

This is the ninth album from Forgotten Tomb, an Italian black/doom/sludge metal band.

I do have a particular fondness for Forgotten Tomb. Over the years they have morphed from depressive black metal into some form of reeking, hideous piece of blackened sludge nastiness. They’ve reached the point now on We Owe You Nothing that they’ve just thrown everything that they like about darkness and hatred into 42 minutes of blackened sludge doom.

They’re still more black metal than not, of course, but the sludge and doom influences that have crept in over the years are now firmly lodged in the band’s sound, and I must say that it makes for very enjoyable and satisfying music.

We Owe You Nothing is the (un)natural successor to 2015’s immense ball of grim evil that was Hurt Yourself and the Ones You Love, which forced its way onto my best of 2015 end of year list through sheer force of blackened will. I still have the scars. We Owe You Nothing takes the sound to its next logical conclusion, spreading its filth and misery as far and as wide as possible.

Thick, heavy riffs crush you down, while dissonant darkness and sinister melodies erode your confidence from the edges of your consciousness. You’re then covered in sickly, blackened tar, as the band leave you to rot and die in search of their next victim.

The aggression that the band display has been channelled into the slower, doom-powered sections of the music more this time around. Oppressive and fiendishly heavy, Forgotten Tomb have a clear talent for this kind of blackness.

The band’s melodic sensibility is firmly intact, however, and for all its darkness and pain, this is still an album of texture and layers. Sometimes the melodies are brought to the front in a strong display of emotive colour, while at others the delivery is more subtle, adding mood and feeling to the heaviness of the main guitars. Either way, Forgotten Tomb know what they’re doing, that much is clear.

We Owe You Nothing is another impressive addition to Forgotten Tomb’s considerable discography, and I highly recommend that you give this one a spin and become absorbed in its dark atmospheres and distorted anguish.