TIME MACHINE : A FOREST

A Forest is an Italian black metal band founded by two friends in 2000 in the Italian town of Novara. The idea for the band emerged a bit earlier, initially as a duo with members Mayhem on drums and vocals, and M. (Marco De Rosa) on guitars, bass, and vocals.

At the time, M. was already involved in several other Italian black metal bands—Skoll (his main project), Emortualis, The True Endless, and Huginn—giving him solid experience in black metal music.

Even before entering the studio to record their first tracks, the duo was heavily inspired by Scandinavian black metal and themes of nature’s power, Satanism, and coldness. As you might expect, these influences would play a significant role in shaping the band’s future direction.

With this lineup, A Forest recorded their first demo, Fury of the Elements, released in 2000, marking the start of an incredible journey for the enthusiastic musicians. The demo was distributed by the now-defunct cult label Chanteloup Creations, run by Nicolas Blachier, as a limited-edition cassette. The cover art, created by M., followed the familiar old-school style.

After this demo, the two musicians fell into a whirlwind of inspiration and released another demo that same year, The Abyss in Northland, recorded straight from their rehearsal space. It was put onto a few tapes without any cover art, and the band didn’t actively distribute it. This legendary recording is one of those truly lost to time—entirely inaccessible music.

A few years later, in 2002, the band released their third demo, Tales of Winter Frost, this time choosing to record the album on CD. Consisting of only four concise tracks, yet filled with traditional black metal atmosphere and a chilling Norwegian coldness, this demo caught the attention of the label Ordo Obscuri Domini, which offered to feature it in a split release alongside the iconic German black metal project Vinterriket.

That same year, A Forest began discussions with the label Wotan’s Reich Productions regarding the recording of their debut full-length album, and in 2003, The Spirit of the Forest (To Bleed Northern Spirit) was released. This time, a professional sound engineer, Daniele, was brought in to handle the mixing. Many critics labeled the production as “terrible,” but according to the band, that was exactly the sound they intended—after all, in black metal, production quality has never been the focus.

Shortly after releasing their debut full-length album, the musicians recorded and released a new EP, Black Clouds, through the small Italian underground label Frozen Creations. After this release, the band seemed to fade, and in 2006, they issued the demo Worn Out, which would turn out to be the final standalone release from M. and Mayhem.

In 2009, the band contributed two tracks to the split release Externsteine by War Kommand Productions, alongside the bands Via Dolorosa and Hakenkreuz Nocturna. Over the years, A Forest’s music also appeared on various compilations, but after 2006, the band’s slow decline began, culminating in its final end in 2016 with the following words:

“A Forest was born as a duo and will die as a duo. From the beginning, we created what we believed to be true underground black metal, achieved through the raw sound of our releases. But now we are exhausted. We no longer have the time to devote to A Forest, and after months of deep introspection, we are bringing the project to an end.”

One reason behind this decision was M.’s illness; he passed away from cancer a year after the band’s dissolution, in 2017. His absence was felt profoundly, bringing a definitive end to several other Italian underground black metal projects that could not carry on without him: Skoll, The True Endless (with Mia Wallace of Abbath and Algol from Forgotten Tomb and Hiems), Torvara, The Blessed Hellbrigade (another band he co-founded with Mayhem), Huginn, and Darkness.

With the death of Marco De Rosa, an entire era in the Italian underground came to an end. Mayhem, whose bond with M. was strong and brotherly, decided to stop making music altogether.

That being said, A Forest may not be one of the most popular bands you’ll hear about, nor among the best, but it is certainly one of the hidden treasures of the Italian underground, carrying a story worth knowing.

Memento mortuorum.