Have you ever listened to a new sound and realized how much you didn’t know you needed it? Of course, you have! Everyone has experienced it and in the current state that we find metal in, many people think that metal doesn’t have anywhere else to go even when it comes to even the slightest modifications. It’s tempting to utter such a statement, but just looking at what all metal has provided makes me confident that such stagnation will never come to pass. With the latest work from the one-man act, Nahtram, I’m even more resolved in that idea.
Symphonic metal has been known to me as one of the last of the more fleshed out styles across the entire spectrum of metal that I still have trouble getting into for one reason or another with the burden of quality for some reason being much higher in my mind than other branches of metal, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to come across a record in this style that really catches me off-guard and blows me away. In every possible way without a hint of exaggeration in my body, Nahtram accomplished wild success and so much more with its brand new epic, “Forest of Eternal Dawn”. By all means, Nahtram doesn’t just settle at symphonic metal and takes it a step further by creating full-blown orchestral pieces that are folded together seamlessly with truly bewildering metal that is the wet dream of any fan of symphonic, power, or epic metal or anything else close to what they bring to the table. Add on top of the godly demonstrations that we’re given in every moment of these seven tracks the simple tag of being instrumental, and the mind just goes wild with imagination when listening to this opus. The lack of vocals play gorgeously into the very feel of “Forest of Eternal Dawn” with the mind taking the notes and the strings and the brass into every possible direction, making the record as a whole feeling so much more cohesive and unique right from the very beginning as every one of these fifty-plus minutes all culminates to make this album not only something that’s downright enrapturing from the very start, but what I can easily call one of the most complete and mature works of anything that can be called symphonic metal that I’ve ever heard.
Such works like what Nahtram has thrown down here are so exceedingly well that many of us never have any hope of coming across one, but it’s with true talent that’s been honed into an absolutely staggering display of color and atmosphere the likes of which we’d be hard-pressed to find literally anywhere else that the single man behind the name of Nahtram should be extremely and eternally proud of what he’s made here. The very spirit of “Forest of Eternal Dawn” is undeniably unique and special in every facet without question, and it is surely to be a record that’s to stick in the hearts and souls of those who fall into it for a long time to come.
LISTEN to “Forest of Eternal Dawn” on Bandcamp here.
LIKE Nahtram on Facebook here.
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