BLACK COBRA
Feather & Stone
(At a Loss)

GRAVE IN THE SKY
Cutlery Hits China: English
for the Hearing Impaired
(Heart & Crossbone)

GHOSTLIMB
S/T
(Self-Released)

THE PLIGHT
Black Summer
(Visible Noise)

NADJA
Radiance of Shadows
(Alien 8)

OBSTRUKTOR
Dead On Arrival 

(Self-Released)

MARBLEBOG
Forestheart

(Autopsy Kitchen)

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Upon first spin of this black metal release my first impression was that it would come from a one man band. It certainly has all the regular aspects of one; simplistic smeared riffs, sloppy drumming, lo fi/basement production values, locked mid-tempos, toothless grandfatherly necrotic vocals, uniformity in cadence, and an incessant desperate attempt to reach a turgid atmosphere. Hey, not bad for a one man band, which by the way seems to be the most anti social and economical modus operandi of the last few years. Especially in the black metal realm where most musicians seem to identify reclusivity and anti social behavior as a sign of one’s own trueness.   But not so great for an actual band. Not in this case anyway. I was very surprised to learn that in fact, Marblebog are a Hungarian black metal band with three members, none of which are machines with a made up given eviiil name by the way and that Forestheart was actually recorded between 2003 and 2004 and released in tape format.  Now, leave it up to Indiana black metal delivery men Autopsy Kitchen to give this Central European band a proper release in the States. Foresheart is also hitting the streets in vinyl so fans of the format can rejoice with a bigger piece of artwork but literally the same sound.

And like most of the black metal bands manufacturing this type of music Marblebog do not make great noise, but blur their sound into a corrosive sound that pushes the instruments to bleed onto each other. Marblebog’s take on metal is indeed so blunt and uncomplicated the sounds of these six tracks never get big. Even when you compare the heavy and noisy parts to the folkloric vibes at the end of the eight minute long “I Am the Forestheart” and expect the hard guitars to take you aback because after all, you’ve just been hearing what the band calls ‘shamandrum’ and synthesizer for a couple of minutes, but nope.

At the heart of the record is “A Tempest Never Calming Down”, truly a first grader, but in the sense of its simplicity and not its quality. This is as unsophisticated as it comes. A couple of chords, a constant backbeat and a dude with corpse paint spewing his lines about what seems to be his love for nature and his Satanic relationship to vegetation. Good for him, it just doesn’t do it for me.

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