Noise Pollution #26: Hail to England
No, not that one.
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It just sort of lined itself up organically that during the time of the American Thanksgiving that I’d feature music from England, since that’s who the pilgrims were escaping if I remember third grade history well enough.
Some days I hope you can’t tell if I’m being facetious or not. If I remembered what email my Twitter is attached to I’m sure the mentions would be kind and full of grace.
Most people when they hear “English black metal” traditionally would think of Cradle of Filth and move on with it–maybe Hecate Enthroned if they’re older (or fucking from England) or a lot of the Death Kvlt/Deathprayer releases if they’re younger (or cool like me). You’ll also get a lot of the MENSA level on-the-nose thinkers who’ll say “Venom” and be both absolutely correct as well as absolutely insufferable, but when I think of English black metal the first thing that comes to my mind is Old Forest, specifically their debut Into the Old Forest which originally came out on Mordgrimm in 1999. Discogs tells me the owner of that label was somehow connected to Lostprophets, though I’m sure he wasn’t the guy who wanted to fuck babies.
I first heard the album when I picked it up at Milwaukee Metalfest in 2000. That was still the time in my life where I was insatiable for black metal and would purchase things blindly based on the packaging or what label released it, and I understand the impact it had on a younger version of myself considering I know I bought a ton of shit that fest but can only remember this and the criminally underrated Potentiam debut (which is on the list to get to in 2023). It contained eight album tracks as well as the entire Of Mists and Graves demo.
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At this time in the game there were so many black metal bands that were moving towards something that only resembled their former selves, with the proliferation of industrial dance shit or the crescendo of the retro thrash thing that finding bands with genuine old school black metal (second wave, otherwise I’d have to lump the aforementioned retro thing in and I could only stomach a handful of those bands) tendencies became both a challenge and a priority for me. Old Forest felt just that, old.
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Take elements from Gehenna’s First Spell and mix them with whatever that rehearsal with Hellhammer that Emperor had on Nordic Metal (which Old Forest would eventually cover) mixed in with a sample of the bells from the beginning of Bathory’s “Raise the Dead” on the album’s second track “Death in the Cemetary” (sic) and you have a good starting reference. Old Forest proudly wear their influences on their sleeves and do so in such a sincere manner that you truly feel transported back to the earliest time of black metal’s second wave.
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The album instantly became a favorite for me and stayed that way even through the periods where I was absolutely bored to death of the genre. Over twenty years later I would place it within my top few dozen records of all time. I just never get tired of it.
Old Forest managed to stay somewhat mysterious after the album’s release. I remember asking around for some kind of contact with the band as I was really interested in pursuing them for my Blood Fire Death label but they just kind of vanished from my sight. Every inquiry I tossed out would be met with either a shrug or rumor about them being in Meads of Asphodel (which partially turned out to be true, but I didn’t get that confirmed for two fucking decades) and eventually I just thought they returned to the earth, leaving one truly special record behind.
Turns out I was mistaken.
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They did record a follow up, titled None More Black which I guess they shopped around a bit but nothing ever came of it so the record was shelved until a limited CDr release in 2014. I had no idea the fucking thing existed til two years ago. Had I known back then I would have bent over backwards to release it. Old Forest recorded one more demo in the early part of the 2000s before disbanding. Several years later they reformed and have been fairly active since, albeit stylistically more in line with pagan black metal with elements of doom. This doesn’t mean they’ve forsaken where they’ve come from, far from it. In the last few years they’ve rerecorded both Into the Old Forest and None More Black, becoming a band that somehow doesn’t fuck up their old material when they revisit it, which is a goddamned unicorn in any genre, especially this one.
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Most recently they’ve released a compilation of their three early demos on CD through Cult Never Dies (available here) and a vinyl version containing Of Mists and Graves and The Kingdom of Darkness demos via Amor Fati with US distribution through NWN! (where I picked up my copy). We’ll be talking about the reissues whenever I submit my year-end list.
We stay in Britain but for a sadder reason. Last week Keith Levene, the pioneering guitarist/experimentalist who played on the first three Public Image Ltd records (as well as a version of the fourth album amongst a litany of things afterwards) died last week due to liver cancer at the age of 65. I didn’t follow his post-Pil career so I can’t speak on it but those first three records, especially Metal Box, came into my life at one of my darkest periods of poor mental health, a failed suicide attempt, and generally pleasant shit to bring up at holiday dinners, especially around strangers.
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It’s easy to forget just how bleak and out there Public Image Ltd was prior to John Lydon readopting his Johnny Rotten persona and releasing a series of increasingly less interesting records until filling the bed with hot liquid shit in the form of whatever joke filled bullshit the reunion records are (not to mention any time he opens his fucking mouth lately) but Jesus Christ they were ahead of their time and, much like The Smiths, more than the sum of their parts.
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Levene and bassist Jah Wobble combined were able to create what is, to me, the finest moment in the post-punk genre as a whole. As lineup changes and personal issues between members continued Levene (and drumming genius Martin Atkins-who I once got into a argument on Facebook with, about what I can’t remember) constructed the challenging and unpleasant Flowers of Romance record, marking the creative zenith that the band would never really follow up from.
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Levene and Lydon in a less than amicable fashion parted ways during the work on the fourth album. Lydon’s version This is What You Want, This is What You Get is far different than the album he and Levene put together (it’s still a great record) and because of this Levene would release his version as Commercial Zone which shows a darker path than the already fairly fucking bleak released version traveled.
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I could prattle on and on but I want to end this on one of my favorite instrumental tracks ever, “Radio 4” from Metal Box, a simultaneously comforting and depressing song by Levene. RIP and thanks for providing me with some comfort in difficult times.
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Next column we’ll be focusing on the holiday season in case I haven’t fucked up the last bit of black metal credibility I may have had left. See you in two.
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