Forgotten Tomb are one of the Italian excellences of our extreme metal since the beginning, when they shook the audience with a black metal with a strong depressive imprint both musically and in terms of themes. Time has partially smoothed this aspect, even if a certain disenchanted negativity remains at a lyrical level, while the sound has evolved into a form of black death with large veins doom, always able to offer significant melodic cues and above all, maintaining a unique style, which is then the true hallmark of the bands of higher levels. We Owe You Nothing is the ninth full length of the group of Ferdinando Marchisio (aka Herr Morbid) and at each new release of bands with a similar status is always great fear of finding an irreparable tarnish of compositional freshness but, judging by these six songs, we can safely say that this danger has been averted. Of course, you have to start forcibly from the assumption that Forgotten Tomb today are no longer the same as Love’s Burial Ground and even those of Negative Megalomania, which seems far from obvious given the tendency of many to dwell on the past instead of focusing on the present; having said that We Owe You Nothing keeps in focus the brand of the band and this happens both when the title track reveals those shades of southern Marchisio has vented in the recent past with Tombstone Highway, both in Second Chances, when the song dissolves into a magnificent slowdown of pure doom matrix. The now historic rhythmic base, formed by Alessandro “Algol” Comerio on bass and Kyoo Nam “Asher” Rossi on drums, which accompanies the leader since Love’s Burial Ground is a synonym of guarantee and cohesion that further enhances the work, even when they take place the characteristic guitar progressions as in Saboteur and, above all, in the telluric final of Abandon Everything. Longing For Decay is a good song with heavy stoner sludge nuances that however flows away without providing any particular emotional shocks, which come instead with Black Overture (which contradicting the title actually closes the work), a beautiful instrumental marked by an atmospheric and melodic black doom. Forgotten Tomb have reached an enviable status, which is that of a band that can follow its own way without caring about trends or commercial convenience, without this going to affect the final result; as far as I’m concerned, I think that We Owe You Nothing is the best album churned out by the band from Piacenza in this new decade, proving to be much more incisive and nuanced than the good Under Saturn Retrograde, …And Don’t Deliver Us From Evil and Hurt Yourself And The Ones You Love, and this is no small thing.

2017 – Agonia Records