Band:	Frostmoon Eclipse
Album:	Dead And Forever Gone
Style:	Black metal
Release date:	2005

01. What Could Have Been
02. Long Gone
03. Last Will
04. Devilish And Mournful
05. A Moment Long A Lifetime
06. A Warm Yesterday
07. With Your Emptiness
08. Neon Lights
09. Joyless And Soulless
10. Once Was A Gold
11. Ten Thousand Miles Ahead
12. It Heals It Hurts

On this surprising release, the black metal band Frostmoon Eclipse decided to include a collection of entirely acoustic, emotional rock songs instead of their usual competent, yet non-groundbreaking black metal. To me this is a very respectable and brave move that deserves praise. We could do with more bands ready to completely disregard their audience's preconceptions and hit them in the head with a surprise. Whether this is what the band was consciously influenced by or not, what I hear on Dead And Forever Gone is a combination of acoustic rock, folk/shanties influenced melodies and the occasionally grungy vocals of Lorenzo Sassi (think acoustic Nirvana).

Although this is all fine and dandy, it also unfortunately seems to me that Frostmoon Eclipse failed to realize something. Although what they are doing is very unique for the black metal scene, there is already a form of music that achieves similar results with similar methods present in another genre. Yes, I am thinking of bands like Death In June and Current 93. Whether Frostmoon Eclipse wants us to or not, if we are aware of those bands, we will compare Dead And Forever Gone to their output and frankly, the Italian black metallers do not stand a chance in this comparison. The music of the post-industrial apocalyptic neo-folk masters is by far more chilling, creepy, ethereal, powerful and sophisticated than that of Frostmoon Eclipse.

Luckily, Frostmoon Eclipse is not that far behind and their music does have a lot to offer. The sound of the album is very warm and there is a number of excellent songs that actually really made me feel good about myself for hearing them. The Lycia-like "What Could Have Been" and the especially grungy "Devilish And Mournful" are such songs and I highly recommend them to anyone. The instruments in general interplay with each other in what sounds like a very tranquil way and help us get into a contemplative mood. Sadly, by the fourth track, it becomes apparent what the biggest flaw of this album is. The vocals work in the very same way as Quorthon's did on Bathory's more epic releases - they are hauntingly appropriate when used for simple chanting and achingly dreadful when attempts at any kind of melodic acrobatics are made. Sadly, the vocalist tends to prefer the latter approach and fails badly most of the time. Not a massive problem, perhaps, since it is easy to get used to this approach; however, this is in my view a significant minus for the album. The songwriting also gets slightly repetitive by the end of the album; however, I imagine the band can easily overcome this shortcoming on future releases by just varying the tempos a little.

I can see Frostmoon Eclipse going to great places with this kind of music in the future, if only they do their homework, improve the vocals and work on their songwriting a little bit more. With this said, Dead And Forever Gone is still a very interesting and listenable effort and a respectable statement for a band to make in the world of black metal.