Finsterforst guides us through peaks, valleys, and dense woods of their ‘Black Forest Metal’ on Still.
Release date: July 31, 2026 | AOP Records | Bandcamp | Instagram
It’s an unfortunate sign of the times that we sometimes have to worry when a current day metal band shows a lot of pride in their homeland. A lot of times, such bands just love their area and want to celebrate and share the music, stories, and spirit of their culture, but other times, well… we here at Everything Is Noise don’t review those kinds of void brains. When bands fall into that former category, though, the results are often spirited, a little unique, and well worth diving into. Finsterforst proves to be that exact kind of band, as highlighted on their new album Still.
Hailing from Schwarzwald, Germany, Finsterforst also happens to be one of those delightful bands that throws genre convention to the wind in pursuit of the feelings they seek. Settling in on what they call ‘Black Forest Metal’, Finsterforst‘s sound is a blend of doom, folk, pagan, and post-metal, finely fermented into an emotive powerhouse of a sound. The sort of sound where immense grooving riffs meet burly clean vocals and choruses, where harsh screams share space with EDM-ready synthesizer tones, and where either of those things are prone to give way to acoustics and accordions. And yet, it all just works.
Maybe the most surprising thing about Still is that the album doesn’t even need to try throwing in these diverse elements as surprises. The grand opener “Obduktion” boldly weaves its way through practically all those elements at a deliberate pace, so confident and sure of the approach that Finsterforst never once feels like they’re just dropping things in for wow factor. “Herbstwanderung” and “Knie nieder” both tighten that approach into much shorter songs, the former featuring some grand refrains while the latter flows through peaks and valleys of intensity worthy of the mountain ranges the band has settled near. Then the band kicks it back into more drawn out landscapes for “Im Wind”, which features a beautiful quieter bridge making great use of accordions and cleaner guitar tones to highlight the heavy stomp of their riffs.
“Stille Nacht” ended up a particular heavy-hitter to me, featuring a swaggering riff that wouldn’t have been out of place on Bathory‘s Hammerheart, though featuring a far more polished production. Meanwhile, “Fels” provides a gorgeous acoustic interlude featuring some great singing before the band condenses everything into the monolithic close that is “Leere”. Weighing in at a staggering 24 minutes (not even the bands longest work, mind you), Finsterforst puts all they have into the grand epic and leaves no element off the table, summing up the album in glorious fashion. And hell, if that’s not enough for you, the band even tucks in a nice pair of covers at the end (Immortal and Pink Floyd, no less!), rendered in their own particular idiom.
Of course, Still is an album that does require a little bit of patience. Finsterforst isn’t really into the whole brevity thing, and as much as it works wonders in crafting a mood, listeners shouldn’t turn to Still as a quick fix listen for some stereotypically fun folky metal. But the band knows how to write a great longer song, and the production of Still is absolutely thundering and massive. A genuine treat for the ears, and it does make for some extra replay value catching those little elements the band tucks into their compositions.
As much as their all-German lyrics made me sore about 8 years of learning German at school going to waste, I’ll admit that Still was a delight of an album to explore. This kind of genre-agnostic metal remains too rare a treat, and Finsterforst made me doubly happy by reminding me that folky metal can be moving and powerful sometimes, instead of just being some bouncy party music for drinking. Finsterforst‘s Black Forest Metal approach was a treat for the ears, and I’d happily recommend Still to anybody looking for some new metal that’s heavy on riffs and feelings, and don’t mind a journey deep into the woods to find it.
