When you open this review up, you notice that the overall rating is higher than the ratings for musicianship, production and composition. The musicianship could be tighter, the production struggles, and the writing is a bit too repetitive. So you may wonder why on Earth I gave it a better rating than it appears it should have. Well, I’ll tell you: It’s because this album is surprisingly listenable, enjoyable, and one that I can’t seem to stop listening to. The term “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” applies here, as the album struggles in parts, but overall excels in where it really counts.

The opener is a 16-minute epic (not real long, though, as the shortest ‘real’ song is just over 10 minutes), beautifully crafted song. Not perfect by any means, and somewhat repetitive, but an enjoyable song. The first thing you probably notice, though, is that the singing vocals seem to not fit real well. At least, to me, they don’t sound like they fit. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good vocalist, but it seems like he’s a singer for a more goth-like band than a death-doom band. His death growls are also a bit out of place somehow. Either way, there are a lot worse vocalists out there, so he’s not too bad. “November Dream” is the second song on the disc, and this is one of the highlights. This is one of two songs I can’t listen to enough. The section from 4:12 to 5:22 is amazing. This is a very well crafted song. Next is “Bleak Dormition,” a somewhat useless five minute instrumental, as it sort of kills the pace of the album. It’s not a bad instrumental, but to me, it was useless putting it in the album, as it goes no where fast and has nothing to do with any of the other songs.

The next real song is “Open Wound,” the other highlight of the album I can’t get enough of. Very melodic, has enough pep to keep your attention, and is just plain great. Great use of the transition from clean vocals to the death growls, back to the clean vocal style. You could almost make a single out of this song, and that’s not a bad thing. The closer is the title track, and it chugs along pretty damn well. The softer parts of the songs have a great use of harmonics, and the last third of the song has a fantastic fast Gothenburg-like death melody that almost can’t be beat.

One look at the whole doom metal genre and you realize that styles and idea get played out, and all too often clone bands form. Yes, that happens with all style in general, but with doom, you really need that extra something to stand out. I’m not sure what it is, but Forest of Shadows seems to have it. The musicianship is good, and even though the band has been around since 1997, they could still use a bit more tightening up. Yet, their use of harmonics in all of their songs really gives them a unique edge, as I haven't noticed anything like that used as much in a doom record. The production is what might turn some off, as it seems to be a bit thin for the style. So, overall, as I said, the result is definitely better than the sum, and if that’s a bad thing, then may the doom train run me over.

[This review was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]