OLD FOREST – Sutwyke
Release Date: 31st March 2023
Label: Soulseller Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Black Metal, Folk Black Metal, Symphonic Folk Black Metal.
FFO: Cradle of Filth, Gorgoroth, Enslaved.
Review By: Andy Spoon
Formed in 1998, OLD FOREST is set to release their most recent LP, sutwyke (emphasis on the lower case letters) on March 31st, 2023. The British Black Metal trio has sought to bring the older-school vibe of the 90s black metal scene back, having written the album during the COVID-era times, OLD FOREST joins a litany of other artists whose rage and frustration with the pandemic was turned into motivation for an album which was designed to be a voice during the chaos. Sutwyke is definitely something that listeners will appreciate for its darkness and insidious tone.
Immediately, we are greeted with some stereophonic mixing, which is good. I generally don’t tend to like lo-fi black metal, to the behest of the OSBM fans. I generally just want to be hit by the more contemporary atmospheres of being recorded with some degree of quality. I think that the sound of Black Metal in general has developed enough to the point that bands ought to be recorded with modern techniques and tone. Although, I’ve been beaten over the head by superfans, who insist that only the worst recording will do. I tend to disagree; and it appears that OLD FOREST does as well on sutwyke.
Vocally, I was generally given what I expect to hear. There was a high-growl across most of the album, but if you tune in, expect to hear some Type O Negative-style clean vocals bellowing poetry and incantations over a very folksy blend of black metal with some symphonic backing tracks. It’s not necessarily like Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir. In fact, it’s a little “dirtier” in a sense than those symphonic black metal bands. I think that there is a duality of sutwyke between some of the clean vocal sections and the more traditional black metal sections. It does generally all meld together for a cohesive identity, which allows me to be able to construct a picture of sutwyke as a whole concept, and not just a “mixtape” (as the kids say).
The maddest and absolute crushing banger of a track on the album is track 5, Master of Arachnids, which is 100% speed and power from moment number one. It’s got that symphonic sound behind the wailing guitars. This one, as an exception to my other comment above, does happen to carry that Cradle of Filth vibe, but with its own identity that fits in with the album’s other tracks. It makes for a dynamite mid-point track. I flipped that one on repeat several times, all seven minutes of it! The track works on several basal-level dissonant black metal chords which are emphasized by the synth, and reprise every so-often during the runtime. I absolutely enjoyed it as the pinnacle of the sound I’d been hoping for on sywyke.
When trying to come up with a way to describe OLD FOREST’s sound in 2023, it really depends on “where you’ve come from, in the sense that the older sounds are generally going to be mixed between the “golden-era” bands like Burzum, Mayhem, and even Gorgoroth, but must be blended with the pagan/folk black metal genre that seems to elude me as a fan, as I seemed to have a harder time find their general contemporaries. In trying to conduct some research across the genre, I was shocked to see how many of these types of bands come out of far-East Europe or Russia/Ukraine. I am always happy to learn about new types of metal, scenes, and subgenres that I might not have known before. You might be able to thank a British blackened folk metal band for introducing me to Russian Pagan black metal as a result of their review.
The sound is definitely not so much “pagan” or “Viking” black metal, as it is loosely-based on a symphonic “assist”, rather than a symphonic lead instrument. OLD FOREST seems to want the heaviness of the album to be 100% at the forefront, leaving the folksy, dream-state fairy noise way off in the distance to be enjoyed only after bearing the crushing weight of the guitars and vocals. The clean bellowing vocals also help sutwyke achieve a unique sound that isn’t generally heard in these musical subgenres. In learning about other bands in this type of space, I think that I was able to get a better feel for what OLD FOREST wants to achieve.
In all honesty, sutwyke is an album for people who have listened to mounds of pagan and folk black metal, but definitely want something that tends to the satanic, the heavy, and rearward-looking to the Nordic black metal roots. Sutwyke is not going to be as engaging for diehard fans of either black metal or folk black metal, as it’s absolutely its own creation, having carved out a spot between folk and black, which still has the spirit of black metal at its core. 
(3 / 5)
