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FORGERY
With These Fists

Battlegod Productions (2014)
Rating: 5.5/10

Norway’s Forgery may have originally formed in 1990, but they quickly became inactive before officially reforming in 2002. The finally got off the ground with a batch of demo recordings and then released their debut platter, Harbouring Hate, in 2009.

Despite the debut being a hefty chunk of groove-based metal that would have fitted perfectly within the metal scene between, say, 1995 and 2000, these guys remain awkwardly yet unintentionally out of touch, and also far from prolific considering With These Fists is their first offering for five years.

Now, this is bruising metal which is easily accessible and throaty in its vocal, and it is the vocal growl of Anders Moen which gives the album its grit. However, although this nine-track affair is weighty throughout – extremely weighty in fact – it remains a touch bland despite the injection of thrashier moments and so this comes across like a bruising mix of Machine Head circa Burn My Eyes (1994), Pantera and groovier, albeit modern death metal.

There is something appealing in the simplicity of this muscular record; maybe it’s the juggernaut riffing of Moen and team-mate Ronny Hansen (ex-Enthral) who work in cohorts to deadly effect, churning out huge tidal wave riffing that pounds and pounds until the building collapses into a pile of debris. The solos are sporadic, and merely acts of brief enlightenment, and the drums of former Old Man’s Child pummeller Jan Roger Halvorsen are truly thunderous, which are complimented by the earthquake bass strums of Morten Steen.

As I said, this is heavyweight metal but sadly it’s not the most innovative. Despite the crushing double bass rumble of the drum and those menacing guitar barrages, there’s rarely a moment when the listener becomes entranced. If anything, the tone is slightly dull as the quartet trudge without remorse through the ears then into the cranium. At times very Americanized in its stance, Forgery’s sophomore slice just doesn’t do anything remotely interesting except batter the audience into submission.

If groove metal is your thing, or whatever you want to call it, then With These Fists will ram home its fists nicely, but considering I was never even swayed by the blood, sweat and tears of Pantera, then I find this rather drab. ‘Effigy’, ‘Mirror Man’, ‘Shadows Of Fear’, ‘Black Mourning’ and ‘Anatomy Of Pain’ are all in-your-face knuckle-dusters which exude a robust sort of menace and attitude, but I’m not going to lie; when the needle lifted from this lump of elephantine gristle I was relieved after feeling rather smothered by this heaving, sweaty and overtly muscular slab of metal.

This is the sort of metal that in the mid-to-late 90s I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid at, and so why should it be any different all these years later? Pound for pound it’s a force far from being the best fighter in any division, but Forgery will just continue with their charge.

Neil Arnold

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