Yet more fascination in Aokigahara the Japanese ‘Suicide Forest’ here and seriously it is becoming a bit of a cliché now. Perhaps Covid has left it as place where the dead can finally go to die in peace but before it hit, one wonders how they could find anywhere to do so with the amount of film crews making movies, musicians wandering around, those seeking inspiration for literature, artwork, poems and idiot social media “celebrity” bloggers bringing the shady domain unwarranted attention Everyone has been hanging around there and (excuse the gallows humour) it is near impossible to not find mention of it in dark culture at some point. Indeed, in black metal it is a theme cropping up with startling regularity, here we have Suicide Forest a project from Arizona based musician A Kruger and putting together next week’s review list I see we have Mexicans Lifeless treading the same paths of sorrow in their work (since writing this US based Eclipsus too). You can’t help but wonder if half these people have actually been there, if not when the world opens up again its going to be full of blackpackers at this rate.

Thankfully, although treading through the soil and trees like so many before him, Kruger’s music here is very good. The 5 lengthy tracks on this second album, which follows up a self-titled debut along with various demos, compilation, splits and even a live entry, is one where you can immerse yourself in the misery of its unwitting subject matter. Perhaps there’s even a bit of an apology in the album title for taking us there. ‘Reluctantly’ starting with said title takes us into a shady, haunted domain with definite Xasthurian overtones. A cadaverous, necrotic vocalisation screeches out anguish and misery and the atmosphere is immediately cold and without hope. Keyboards weep and cast a cold shroud over it all and one finds themselves in a place with little in the way of hope. Mired in the ethos of DSBM musically the vocals are particularly vicious, perhaps paradoxically so, rather than portraying the sorrow of someone who has considered they have no hope but to shuffle off this mortal coil at their own hand they sound like a hungry malevolent force, there like a pariah, waiting eagerly to reap their very souls. If not the enveloping funereal tones of the music certainly will. However, there is pace and force all of a sudden as ‘As The Light Fades pt. I’ barrages in with bruising grit and spite. Perhaps it signifies desperation as the noose tightens around the neck and a painful lust for life desperately clings, the person realising that they have made a terrible mistake, one that is too late to undo. There’s a spiralling guitar solo and some staccato rhythm in the riffs here and musically this has a real urgency about it and a grim determination. The vocals are left to the void of nature, all may not be silent though as ‘Remorse’ ponderously sets in and the gloomy instrumental piece bathes us in reverberating solemnity.

With 2 tracks spanning 20 minutes left the sorrow is further reflected on and there is due care and attention to the subject matter for those that can take the reverential tones of tracks such as ‘Trembling In Emptiness.’ You couldn’t really accuse music such as this as being exploitative to the subject matter and it is heartfelt in consideration. Moving from near classicism to force, those hungry vocals really cut and the music tumbles away in vigorous pursuit. The reluctance has gone, replaced with an air that if anything sounds triumphant, the death king reigns supreme and a sense of gothic grandeur permeates. Naturally we have to confront the finale ‘As The Light Fades pt. II’ and are taken into the sylvan realm for the final time (for now) via a keyboard sonata which then explodes into the full might and musicianship of its composer. Its windswept and hits like a tornado as though the gods are affronted and want to consume Aokigahara in fire and wipe it off the face of the earth. There’s no escaping the imagery that this album has you facing and it really takes the imagination to a place you may not want to be in but that is the challenging nature of music like this and Kruger has certainly done a very good job in conjuring it up. I have already marked down myself for a quick return to this place via the aforementioned Lifeless, hopefully their interpretation will be as good as this so my journey back is not a reluctant one.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/SuicideForestDSBM

https://suicideforestblackmetal.bandcamp.com/album/reluctantly