Band:	Forsaken
Album:	Iconoclast
Style:	Doom metal
Release date:	December 2002

01. Where Angels Have Fallen
02. Via Crucis (The Way Of The Cross)
03. A Martyr's Prayer
04. Wither The Hour

Four songs for 34 minutes? How surprising, Forsaken plays doom metal, and unusually comes from Malta. I don't know the quality of the rest of the Maltese scene, but if it is half good as this one, watch out! And yet, Forsaken has nothing really original, they play basic heavy-doom in the vein of Candlemass, with guitars tuned in bass tones, riffs as slow as possible, and as heavy as they can be (heavier would be either Black Sabbath or funeral doom), wretched lyrics dealing with the esoteric side of religion... but all this is made with such enthusiasm, such mastery, that it becomes a very nice surprise.

"Where angels have fallen" has one of the heaviest and darkest riffs I've heard. The keyboards are not really present but they add a kind of foggy atmosphere. A cool guitar solo during the intro should be noted. The singer is quite talented, but he sounds more like a heavy metal singer than like a doom one, except on a few grunts. On the whole, this is a good but calm song.

"Via crucis [The way of the cross]" is the highlight! If My Dying Bride had written it, it would have been considered as good as "The Cry Of Mankind" by the fans. This is a bit similar to this last one: the intro with acoustic guitars, then a heavy riff enhanced by a weeping piano... The singer appears with a depressing tone, like a way to introduce the mournful riff before the very catchy chorus, on which the vocals are strengthened by female backing vocals. The keyboardist plays the most important part on this song, as the piano is almost still present, and when it's not, it is replaced by a surprising organ break... Definitely the best song on the album.

"A martyr's prayer" introduces the second part of the album, which is more violent but unfortunately less inspired. The riff here is mid-tempo, with less bass. Things calm down a little when the vocals step in, but the end is brutal. The vocals on the last part are not in tune, the music is not really much to write home about... Everything seems completely disorganized. A track to forget.

"Wither the Hour" is worthy, above all, for its atmosphere: the windy intro, the keyboards very present on the chorus. About the rest... well the main riff is good, but sounds like déjà-vu: that said, the music on this song sometimes strangely sounds like the song "Left Hand Path" by Entombed.

To sum up, there are very good ideas on this demo that need to be dug. Maybe more training would bring the ability to remain on a straight line and not to scatter in every direction. For example, it is a shame everything has not the quality of "Via Crucis" (I repeat myself but in my opinion it is one of the best doom songs ever), but even only for the first two songs, Forsaken is worth being discovered.