Not having a flesh-and-blood drummer seems to work for Forge. One and a half year after their duo debut Desperatio Infinita, Marcel and Denis are back with the follow-up EP Ouni MEnsCH. The title is already a first hint: Forge have decided to have Luxembourgish lyrics on their new songs. Some bands (Sublind, Mike Litoris Complot…) occasionally have fun lyrics in their native language. The lyrics are much bleaker on the new EP, as Forge are a doom metal band, and according to the Encyclopaedia Metallum, currently the only active doom metal band from Luxembourg.

The opener Alles fir mech, alles ass mäint is a seven-and-a-half-minute long monster that owes as much to early Type O Negative as to Crowbar. Although Black Sabbath-y riffs turn up here and there, Forge belong to the thrashier bell curve of doom. And yet, their songwriting has become much more varied. After an epic doom intro, the verse comes with barked lyrics that mimic the selfishness of the average Luxembourger. The chorus on the other hand is surprisingly melodic, proving that Marcel can both scream and sing. The following Falsche Kinnek follows in these footsteps. The generous eight-minute playing time allows the musicians to put a lot of different parts into their song. There are a lot of unexpected twists and turns, and compared to their previous album, Forge have become more aggressive and more melodic at the same time. One reason for this might be the fuller sound on the new songs.

Mi Vida / Su Vida starts with a trash metal intro before taking a turn back to doom. This track convinces with perfect interplay between atmospheric guitar riffs and bouncy bass lines. The concluding Rou is maybe less varied, but still works as a gigantic doom behemoth that uses all of its eight minutes to build an immense amount of momentum, like a slow but unstoppable steamroller heading mercilessly into your direction.

If the Luxembourgish lyrics may seem gimmicky at first, it turns out that they work astonishingly well in the context of Forge’s new material. The songs are all between seven and eight minutes long, bringing the Ouni MEnsCH EP to a little over half an hour. The EP is currently not released in any physical format, so you have to stream it, which I can strongly recommend for this excellent doom metal effort.

4 songs

30:24 minutes

***** ***

Genre: doom metal

(self-released)

Released: 7^th November 2024

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