As someone who has been around the block in the extreme doom metal genre before, it seems fitting that an hourglass should be featured on the cover of this album. Seedna of Sweden are a black and doom metal band that like to take their time. Their latest album, Forlorn, is greatly summarized in its single word title; and is the embodiment of staring patiently into the abyss as each grain of sand drops in slow motion. Seedna was formed back in 2012 and is what the band describes as "a formation of five souls creating dark and atmospheric audial patterns without any borders."
Forlorn's hour duration feels more like 3 acts of some trajic tale than your average doom outing. It begins and ends with ambient-infused instrumentals, also utilizing them between the 3 proper tracks: "Wander," "Frozen," and "Abyss." If there was an award for choosing the best minimalist descriptors for doom songs, Seedna would undoubtedly be world champions. Who else could boil down 20+ minutes into a single word? But as mentioned, the brevity ends there. The album is otherwise an expansive journey through purgatory.
The image above is another nice snapshot of what to expect from the atmosphere: dark, dreary, isolated. Parched, you gasp down handfuls of water, and yet all you taste is ash. Everything looks the same, yet completely foreign. And every direction you set out in seems to lead back to the same place. Put less cryptically, expect lots of reverb, meandering guitar picking, and tribal-influenced use of toms on the drum kit. Compositions burn about as quickly as one of Wile E Coyote's Acme dynamite fuses. But rest assured, when the explosive finally ignites the resulting shrieks and distortion will blow your face off.
So be forewarned, this is not for everyone. Forlorn is designed for the veteran doomers out there or at least metalheads with plenty of time and restraint. However, if that does sound like you, I am confident that Seedna will take you where you want to go. Those giving this a chance otherwise are best to start with "Frozen," given it's shorter duration and increased focus on black metal during the first half. In any case, I find this album to be another solid outing for the the genre and one that is worthy of attention. Stream a track below and preorder. Full album drops on July 15th.
