OLD FOREST - Graveside CD

Whichever direction Old Forest head within this album, they maintain a particular monochrome aspect that differentiates Graveside from almost everything else I’ve heard from them. Nothing seems particularly complex about the arrangements, with even the keys staying out of the realm of virtuosity, and I believe this stripped-down look has helped focus Kobold and Beleth on powerful ideas and repetition. In many ways, this takes the stronger features of early Emperor and Dimmu Borgir, narrowing the ambition of the former and stoppering the uncertainty of the latter to end up at a point I can appreciate without hankering for the original pleasures of the second wave.