FORLESEN draws from dark ambient, epic doom, black metal and slowcore, to create a dynamic and experimental sound. The quartet are preparing to unveil their black metal cover of TYPE O NEGATIVE’s “Red Water (Christmas Mourning)” on streaming platforms on December 15th, 2023.
Vocalist and guitarist Ascalaphus comments: “TYPE O NEGATIVE were foundational for me, serving as my gateway into doom metal and remaining one of my favorite bands since. In a spirit of Saturnian revelry and sincere mournfulness, we offer this cover of the Drab Four’s grimmest of holiday songs, one that emphasizes the duality that made them such a special band - embers hardly alight after the evening’s celebration, a dark chill entering the room, a sense of both grandeur and nostalgia, along with a very sharp sense of loneliness and despair.
In our cover, then, we simply implemented that duality through the black metal prism. A lushness of melody and atmosphere that provides the backdrop to basically any and every TYPE O NEGATIVE song, cut to the core with the brute strength of raw, piercing, unfiltered emotion. In many ways this is TYPE O NEGATIVE’s bombast taken one step further, and their cruelty and hardship perhaps one step further than that.
TYPE O NEGATIVE did a lot of covers and always made it sound like themselves. There’s an irony to the fact that for a band who could make whatever they touched their own, so many other bands now try (and fail) to imitate them or are fairly literal in their interpretation. So paradoxically, I think the best way to honor what made a song of theirs special is to reinterpret it.
God Jul! Io Saturnalia! Ho ho ho…”
The track has premiered on the Machine Music digital compilation titled Milim Kashot Vol. 5, featuring alongside the likes of PANOPTICON, GNAW THEIR TONGUES and TRHA. All sales of the compilation go to For The Wildlife, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation center.
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA0shIDHcGU
About FORLESEN:
FORLESEN formed in San Francisco at the end of 2016 and released their debut, Hierophant Violent, in 2020. Comprised of two side-length tracks, it soon found a cult following. Now based in Portland, OR, FORLESEN's compositional evolution continued with the release of Black Terrain in 2022, which saw the band expand into previously untapped musical realms.