Based on a cursory overview, you would assume Deciduous Forest make music for vampires. The one-man Australian project combines atmospheric black metal with neofolk and ambient, and synths are front and center. Spooky stuff, seemingly. However, their upcoming album Fields of Yore is not for nocturnal dhampirs. It’s about wandering one’s brain to explore self-destructive tendencies, presented on the largest scale possible. You can hear it for yourself as we’re premiering the album’s first single, “The Formless Dark,” below.
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On “The Formless Dark,” Deciduous Forest tread through their self-constructed landscape and take in the view, the smell of mildew, and the height of the trees. “Tread” is the operative word because the song plods onwards unhurriedly, working with broad brushstrokes in the form of bold, mid-paced riffs. Deciduous Forest only deal with the big picture, and they take their time to paint it. Vital to this is the relationship between the synths and guitars. The former are grandiose while the latter roots the track in metal. It’s a tasteful balance that, importantly, gives some needed heft to what would be an otherwise airy track. “The Formless Dark” is the most forceful song on Fields of Yore, brandishing Deciduous Forest’s muscularity without revealing all the surprises that lay within the record’s larger tracks. Those remain wrapped in mist, waiting until June 23 to be revealed in full.
The band comments:
“The Formless Dark” deals with themes of anxiety and insomnia. When night descends and the panic begins to set in you can spend your nights endlessly wandering the corners of your own mind for your darkest thoughts and memory, the whispers of your consciousness driving you deeper and deeper into your own regrets over an unending cycle of darkness.
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Fields of Yore releases June 23 via Gutter Prince Cabal.
