By Grayson Hale
Man’s Last Portrait is the debut album by New Brunswick trio Forlorn Path, who play a blend of extreme music best described as melodic dark metal. Elements of black, doom, death, and folk metal abound, all while maintaining a unique melodic edge.
Debut albums are strange things. For some groups, that first recording will forever remain their best work, a masterpiece that they are never able to replicate. For others, it is a simple show of their potential and evidence of how much they’ve grown since then. I firmly believe that Man’s Last Portrait fits into the latter category. While there is more than enough potential here to indicate future brilliance, Forlorn Path display a significant lack of experience in the art of creating a full-length record. This is not immediately apparent, however, as they absolutely nail the opening couple of tracks.
'The Coming of Winter' sounds like it could have been taken straight out of an Agalloch album, with a chilling atmosphere and some magnificent instrumental work. Second track 'Empire of Decadence' is even better and displays the diverse range of influences Forlorn Path possess. Starting off with a fast-paced melodic black metal sound, the song eventually slows down for a bit before breaking into a highly memorable death/doom riff. The vocals are competent, nothing special, but they do well enough to complement the music. The song ends on an impressive note, showing off the group’s more subdued side.
'Words Only Wind Can Speak' is another good track but it is from this point on that Man’s Last Portrait begins to dip in quality. While it would be wrong to call these songs bad, the album unfortunately loses much of its initial charm by settling into a repetitive style that is used consistently until the last couple of tracks. It sounds like a minor complaint and perhaps it is – many of these songs are actually pretty impressive as stand-alone pieces – but it comes as a big disappointment after the expectation set by the openers. And ultimately an album should be judged by what it achieves as a whole, and not by the sum of its parts. 'What Lies Beyond' and 'Relics' are both great when listened to individually, but after the boring mid- section they are easily overlooked.
It’s a pity really, because with slightly more variation this could have been a highly impressive debut. Instead, it serves only to reveal the potential that Forlorn Path hold. Regardless, Man’s Last Portrait is available for free download from the group’s Bandcamp page so be sure to check it out, if only for the truly excellent second track.
