A Forest of Stars – Band of the Month December 2020

Once again our DJs curated a fantastic selection to choose from, and it was very close between the shortlist, but we can announce that A Forest of Stars are Band of the Month for December 2020.

Album: ‘Grave Mounds & Grave Mistakes’
Release: 28th September 2018
Style: Psychedelic Avant-garde Black Metal? Something like that, but, y’know only more pretentious
RIYL/FFO: Emperor, Tangerine Dream, Blut Aus Nord, Pink Floyd, Deathspell Omega, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Arcturus, Swans, In The Woods…, and something else. We probably sound nothing like the above, and at the same time, far too much like the above.
Location: The windswept moors of Yorkshire

The year is 1898. The Gentlemen’s Club of A Forest Of Stars invites you to a midnight performance of their latest maniacal masterpiece, “Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes”. This exclusive brotherhood embraces the decadent, conflicting nature of their Victorian England, weaving sickly gin-tinged thoughts with bizarre, hypnotic melodies to fully express the decadence of their era.

120 years later, in the year 2018, A Forest Of Stars would be one of the UK’s leading Avantgarde black metal outfits. On “Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes”, the septet takes William Blake’s proverb of Hell “Exuberance is beauty” as its principle, and celebrates the lushness and excess in their music, lyrics and artwork. As an exploration of a struggle against insanity, it also represents the band’s desire to revisit earlier works. A more atmospheric album than its predecessor, 2015’s “Beware The Sword You Cannot See”, this album has nods to the previous sonic explorations on 2012’s “A Shadowplay For Yesterdays”. We also hear the band utilizing more open space and sound textures in addition to their trademark Avant-Garde black metal, dipping into the raw sounds of 2010’s “Opportunistic Thieves of Spring”.

The lyrics build upon themes of loss, death and inevitability, describing scenes of decay and destruction – Magniloquent, abstract, metaphoric with an abysmal message at its core. Like the crazed tenant swearing he hears the dead man’s heart, “Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes” writhes upon the floorboards, bashing its head in and screaming, “let me out”. From the blistering black metal fury of “Precipice Pirouette” to one last cursed dance in the delightfully strange “Decomposing Deity Dancehall”, this album will reach from the heights of psychedelia to the seas of opium dreamscapes.

Special attention should also be paid to the artwork of “Grave Mounds And Grave Mistakes”: all visuals are not digital/virtual creations or photographs of existing scenery. The art has been crafted physically, composed of miniature models commissioned by the musicians, built and photographed over a period of two years. The models and structures are cut from card, and each detail is hand-made. This dedication to the visual and haptic presentation of music is without equal.

“Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes” was released September 28th, 1898/2018 on Lupus Lounge/Prophecy as Digisleeve CD, gatefold 2xLP and handcrafted 2xCD boxset.

The Gentlemen’s Club of A Forest of Stars are a collection of 19th century vaudeville, classical and burlesque musicians, inspired by the teachings of their ages’ greatest writers, composers, artists and mediums. Their intention is to appoint a fusion of black metal, romanticism, the occult, psychedelia, folk and the improprieties of madness into one unsightly whole, much against the wishes of both Her Majesty’s Government and indeed fashionable society at large. They describe their music as a failed attempt to reach out to the celestial glory of the unconquerable cosmos through the deepest, cloying, incense-choked, dimly lit attic of their spiritually corrupt minds; a messy, highly flawed journey awash with violins, flutes, Middle Eastern percussion, doggerel verse, opium, karimbas, claret, base chants and grossly un-profound meanderings all wrapped into a filthy, threadbare blanket of black metal; An ethanol soaked and laudanum fuelled journey through the highways and byways of a shadow world populated by venomous villains and corrupt clergy, whirling endlessly through the infinite, cold void of space. Sometimes there’s even music involved.

THE RUNNERS-UP

MADRE SUN

Single: ‘Everybody’s Gotta Live’ (Love Cover)
Release: 13 November 2020
Style: Rock
RIYL/FFO: Alice In Chains, Guns n Roses
Location: London

Earlier this year, Madre Sun released their debut EP ‘The Speed Of Light’ on 24th July. The EP saw huge success in the Cavina brothers’ home country, where it entered the Brazilian iTunes Album Chart at #15 and received 40k Spotify streams in the first week of release. Madre Sun have also seen support from American music historian, radio personality, talk show host and author Eddie Trunk, who tweeted the music video for their previous single ‘Trick Up The Sleeve’ and spoke of them as a “killer sounding new band” that he was “excited to keep an eye on”.

Trading the blasting, riff-heavy classic rock found in their debut EP for something a little more laid back, London-based outfit MADRE SUN have released a gorgeous, stripped-back cover of the Arthur Lee/Love classic, ‘Everybody’s Gotta Live’.

Originally featured on Lee’s 1972 debut solo album ‘Vindicator’ and later appearing on Love’s seventh and final studio album, ‘Reel to Real’ in 1974, ‘Everybody’s Gotta Live’ has been brought into the spotlight in more recent times on the soundtrack to the 2019 comedy-drama film Jojo Rabbit.

Now, Madre Sun guitarists Matt Cavina and Tyson Schenker trade fuzzed-up amps for a crisp acoustic tone – with vocalist Eduardo Cavina providing a bluesy, soulful tone to the song’s heartfelt lyrics – in the band’s exceptional cover version.

THEM DAMN KINGS

Single: ‘Throw It Away’
Release: 28 October 2020
Style: Metal / Hard Rock
RIYL/FFO: Black Label Society, Alice In Chains, C.O.C.
Location: Jersey City, NJ. USA

THEM DAMN KINGS is the one man Hard Rock wrecking machine created by New Jersey USA native, guitarist / multi-instrumentalist / vocalist Jef Rhodes. Jef is a long time professional Front Of House engineer, and backline tech who has over two decades of international touring experience with such bands as: Opeth, Cradle of Filth, Highly Suspect, Lacuna Coil, Watain, Mayhem, and others.

By enlisting former Lacuna Coil drummer Ryan Blake Folden, the pair have recorded ‘RISE UP’, a monster of a debut album that sounds both new and exciting – while simultaneously reminding listeners of that golden age of the early ‘90s when Hard Rock, Metal, and Grunge ruled the late night rock clubs of the world.
The band’s debut album ‘RISE UP’ is scheduled for a late spring release in 2021.

“It (“Throw it Away”) was the first song written for the record. It makes me wanna get on a motorcycle and ride even though the song has nothing to do with that. It’s about tossing away your fears in an abstract sort of way.” Jef Rhodes (Lead Guitar / Vocals)

DECEMBER NOMINATIONS

Check out all of the songs nominated by our DJs this month.

Head here to check out our other band of the month winners and finalists.