DisAgreement Online

After the breakup of thrash metal band Man Made Suicide, Marcel and Denis hired a new drummer and continued with the more doom influenced band Forge. The debut album from 2018 was already quite promising, and although I seemingly missed out on its successor two years later, I am happy to declare than I am once again on board with their third album Desperatio Infinita.

The biggest difference compared to the predecessors is that Forge are now a duo consisting of Marcel on guitars and vocals, and Denis on bass guitar. The drums are now programmed, and there are also occasional keyboard parts. Five songs from the previous albums have been re-recorded, while four new track seem to be as yet unreleased. The nine tracks make it to seventy minutes, with two thirds of the songs being longer than eight minutes. So as you can guess from that information, the doom content has become much more emphasised. The opener Escape and the following LMA are genuine behemoths with heavy distorted guitars, just as distorted bass parts and a precise drum beat that add an even bleaker atmosphere to the duo’s overall sound. Lullaby is surprisingly melodic, which then again isn’t so astonishing as it is a cover version of the eighties hit song from The Cure. And kudos to Forge for giving this classic song such a respectful treatment.

The album continues with such dirges, mixing the flair of funeral doom metal with the nihilistic chic of depressive suicidal black metal. And yet, the one band that I keep thinking of is Type O Negative who also mastered the art of creating long form songs full of beauty and misery.

When I reviewed Forge’s debut, I complained about the thin production and the sometimes weak-chested vocals. The latter have improved much over the years, and we shouldn’t forget that Marcel used to be a thrash vocalist, so switching over to a melodic performance must have taken some pressure. The duo, and especially bass player Denis, is happy and proud to announce that his son Ken, who is also not an unknown person in the Luxembourgish metal scene, was in charge of the production. Desperatio Infinita may not sport the glossy metal sound that some thrash metal bands come up with these days, but the chilly, bleak and uncompromisingly life denying mood he has captured is quite impressive. So yes, seventy minutes is maybe more than I can handle in one go, but I suppose that Forge wanted to give some of their older material a new face, but also felt like putting out some new stuff, so that explains the generous length. The album is currently available for streaming on the usual streaming platforms.