When it comes to Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface, there’s only one question worth considering: is the problem me or the album?
Release date: May 8, 2026 | Prophecy Productions | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp
Heralded as the ‘eclectic pinnacle of British Black Metal‘ (yes, capital B and M in ‘Black Metal’ apparently required), A Forest Of Stars have always had the weight of the world on them creatively. They started dense, progressive, and arresting, and they’ve moved as such since then over time, becoming one of the most interesting and revered acts in the genre. Now, after their longest break between projects yet, they return with their longest album yet and it’s honestly and unfortunately the point where one has to question if they’ve still got it in them.
Don’t get me wrong, Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface is definitely an album by A Forest Of Stars, visited by all the hallmarks you’d expect, but it is so much so that it feels like their most iterative effort yet, more of a potential revisit than a blazing of new trails or even refinement. This review is days late by our standards because I could not wrestle out the greater point of connection to me which is kind of bad because I’ve been doing this for years now, I should be able to do that on at least a surface level with anything to form a coherent, purposeful, usually positive review. Is the problem really the album then, or me?
The best part of that question is, well, the answer’s subjective – some may agree this album doesn’t represent the best efforts of A Forest Of Stars, others could call me a slur for getting it so horribly wrong. The second best part of that question being that it doesn’t really matter what the answer is because of the best part’s insistence. The fact of the matter is that there’s this monolith of acerbic, caustic, manic, and very British metal towering over me at 74 minutes tall. I climb it over and over only to slide down its shifting, Escher-esque construction ass (sorry, arse) first. And yet, there’s a liminal beauty calling out to me to try again.
This comes in the form of the bonafide, unequivocally good parts I can grift from Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface, slicing off the meat from fat when no one’s looking and pocketing it to eat later like a scrounging rodent. “Roots Circle Usurpers” delights with its hellish dance of wicked tumult and folkish ambience. “Sway Draped in Vague” is pretty, anchored in some sort of heavenly allure with its pensive and evocative intro that’s bolstered by the longest stretch of cleanly-sung vocals on the album by Katheryne, Queen of the Ghosts.
Does that mean the rest of the album is worthless? Absolutely not. It just means I struggled to find immense, noteworthy moments within it for me. I ultimately felt that Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes and Beware the Sword You Cannot See were harder hitting, if a little rougher around the edges (this album, as a contrast, is pristine production-wise). There was a locomotion to those albums and songs that made them massively progressive wonders with little in the way of detours or holes to traipse into. Their intensity beguiled and cracked the toughest hulls to pervade within. Even vocalist/wide-eyed diatribe spitter extraordinaire Mister Curse simultaneously carried more and less coherence on these older pieces. I’m listening now and a wave of sadness washes over me just wondering what changed. Is it truly me? Is eight years long enough to drive a wedge between myself and a once-loved band?
A Forest Of Stars apparently wrote and scrapped an entire different album between 2018 and now, starting over from the very beginning to build and release Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface. It’s a drastic action built on frustration, unfulfilled creativity, and maybe just a harsh quality check that brings reality crashing upon the artist who can’t seem to nail what they wish. Frankly, I wonder what caused such an extreme move. I won’t question it – far be it from me to judge or act as some sort of garish, arrogant authority on this or any band’s artistry – but damn, I wonder what could have been. With all due to respect to this talented band, who I still find great value in, I just can’t get on with Stack Overflow in Corpse Pile Interface in totality like I expected or wanted to.
I think one of the bigger issues I have that I can confidently name is that it’s too long. A stack overflow is a computing and programming term that I won’t attempt to comprehensively explain here, suffice it to say it’s a type of error that results in a crash of a program or app caused by exceeding a defined limitation. In that sense, this album is a stack overflow for me. I truly hope that others find this LP to be as awesome and enjoyable as I’ve found A Forest Of Stars to be in the past. And to you reading this, I apologize because this whole review can be summed up thusly: this album is, regrettably, not for me.
‘The place should be condemned, really
After all, pride comes before a fall
And sometimes after
…Sometimes after’
