The Leeds based 'Gentleman's Club of a Forest of Stars' have, of late, been stirring the waters of UKBM far from the 'Heritage' end with a combination of label support, image curiosity and very well received gigging. It may be easy for some to be put off by their pseudo-Victorian decadent image; either because it appears too 'goth' for black metal or it being so well crafted that the suspicion creeps in that it must be covering some pretty big holes. Opportunists or the real deal?
Despite their English base, this is the first European release of 2010s intriguingly titled 'Opportunistic Thieves Of Spring' and the opening track 'Sorrow's Impetus' is a really unexpected slap across the mutton chops. No rain, no howling wind; just a dark disorientating spiral of noise as the fast guitar and drums rise out of the abyss. Howled vocals chained to a pummelling back metal riff and the unbalancing taste of faint, twisted keyboards somewhere in the background push it on until an eerie classical violin slows things down. Then a flute flutters and breathes softly in your ear of rituals best left unmentioned before the riff drags you back to the pit. Unhinged chanting, a crescendo of violin and guitar... all in all a far more serious sound, a far darker ambience than I had expected and sprawling across 13 minutes of sinuously shifting but flowing music.
'Raven's Eye View' begins softly, briefly hammering out a slice of ugly thunder before the song is quietened once more and lead by violin and flute into a more sinister realm. 'Summertide's Approach' is a more rhythmic, vocal lead warning to the curious with a wonderfully old, hollow piano interlude accentuating the strangely urban and genteel degeneracy, a lilting, tidal exit that manages to be both gentle and with a feeling of wrongness before the clock calls time.
There is an elegantly distraught touch of early Elend to the howled vocals wrapped in the often stormy riffs, a haunting melancholy of Amber Asylum to the violin, the slightest faded wash of Agalloch to the more gentle, sombre post rock colours but best of all I never feel I am in the presence of anything but a darkly eccentric, very English BM group. This isn't the sound of cascading waterfalls and endless mountains, this is where English pastoral meadows flow into ancient copses, or tastefully designed parlours mask forbidden books and occult clubs. It is as intricately woven as any Victorian bedspread, and as rich as any boudoir.
'Thunder's Cannonade' begins like a walk through a beautiful but empty Manor house, pretty rooms visited to the calming song of violin before we stumble upon the remnants of some ritual gone horribly, terribly wrong.
I guess that 'Starfire's Money' is the most post-rock influenced song but by the time it has bled into 'Delay's Progression' I am totally corrupted and feel disinclined to pick the post-rock from the black metal because they work so well together. The songs may be long but they never entirely seem so; you just end up lost somewhere within their sensuous folds.
There may be still a certain tension for some between the wry, dark humour of the image and the serious, deep music but for me weirdly that works; introducing A Forest Of Stars as eccentric troubadours with a playful love of the forbidden but still able to pull in the grim, serious crowd simply by the enveloping power of the music. Enthralling, melodic, atmospheric UKBM with that post rock veil. And all with a violin and flute but not a trace of folk. Who'd a thunk it from a gentleman's club of laudanum soaked Victorians with a bass player named Mr Titus Lungbutter?
Special. Truly.
http://www.aforestofstars.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/aforestofstars
Gizmo
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