For The Storms – The Grieving Path
Release Date: 21st April 2022
Label: Time To Kill Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Melodic Doom, Death Metal, Black Metal.
FFO: Sumac, After The Burial, Rotting Christ.
Review By: Jason James
From the fertile proving grounds of Italian metal comes For The Storms. Emerging from the ashes of Shantak, the band formed in 2019 in Brescia, Lombardy. Now they hit the metal scene with their debut album, The Grieving Path. While less aggressive and in-your-face than their predecessors, their sound comes across heavier and more ominous.
Track 1, For The Storms To Come, sets out (in some style) what the 3-piece are trying to achieve. Fabio Pierani and Federico Albini summon gargantuan riffs for Nicola Belotti to snarl and roar over. Just short of six minutes in, the music fades and, while this would have been a fitting ending to the track, there is more in store. A clean guitar keens, and the melodies begin to build as the drums join in. This reaches a brutal crescendo and the second half of the song begins. A pounding, ferocious dirge commences, with Belotti baring the depths of his soul for all to see with a ferocious vocal, accentuating the monumental nature of the track. At 12 minutes and 44 seconds, we are finally released from its grip.
The remaining four tracks serve to drive home the message that For The Storms are a force to be reckoned with, or at least aiming to be. The lyrics on the first four tracks (the fifth track, Unbound, is an instrumental) are studies in misery and angry despair, fascinatingly exploring the mindset of someone who has reached absolute rock bottom. They are commentaries of unceasing sorrow. Added to that is grinding, remorseless guitar work, its sole purpose seeming to be to shred your ears and your brain. These elements are laid on a bedrock of bone-shaking drums. The only oasis from the onslaught is the breakdowns, providing a brief respite from the savagery. Choral arrangements on For The Storms To Come, strings at the end of Tombless and a lilting piano at the beginning of A Downfall seek to punctuate the relentless gloom with some slight relief.
Expertly fitting all of these fundamentals together, For The Storms have crafted a very promising debut. The album is well put together, and these guys operate as a tight unit. If I was forced to pick a favourite track, it would probably be Tombless, with A Downfall a close second. If you like your metal slow, heavy and coal-black, you could do a lot worse than this trio. I, personally, cannot wait to see what’s next for this band.
(4 / 5)
