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MetalBite Review by Jack on 3/19/2005

Out of Chicago comes one of 2003’s most aggressive, if not the most aggressive record of the year. Forest of Impaled is the band and Forward the Spears the record. A quick scan down the back of the record and you’re presented with some fairly ominous track titles. "Hand of Vengeance" and "The Call of Death’s Dark Horn" being two prime examples. One can assume death metal or a hybrid mix of death/black, and you’d be more or less right…

I think its something of an art to actually create music that matches up to the lyrical content and/or artist’s image. Power metal is one such misnomer in the metal world. Heaps of these bands successfully create some pretty interesting songs titles with the lyrics to go alongside them. All looks good until you put on the record and realize that the lyrics and topics that they are "singing" about are played to the tune of overblown keyboards and saturated with teenage boy vocals. To get to my point, Forest of Impaled can back up the concept they are pushing – that being war, death, anger and hatred.

Furious riffs, black screams, death roars, all helped along by an adrenaline injected drumming job spell out what Forward the Spears is all about. This record does not let up for the entire 40 minute duration. No shitty samples, no acoustic interludes, no female choir sections. None of this crap. Pure blackened death thrash that concerns itself with hatred, aggression and death. War metal.

Thrash on.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Submitted by Spawnhorde on 3/13/2005

This is a solid blackened death release by these Illonois boys. Out to make it big in the HxC underground, Forest of Impaled comes at us with a second helping of their pulverizing blend of death metal hooks and black metal vocals and lyrical concepts.

Most of the songs are similar, practically the band's worst (and one of the only major) downfalls of the album that makes it deserve this rating. Riffs are sometimes reused, but overall the drumming is the thing that gets the most repetitive. It's almost always just blastbeats with fast double bass, ala Kult ov Azazel etc. The riffs on the album are very solid and work extremely well in the context. They are sort of thrashy Bestial Mockery and Kreator style jabs. The band also pulls off a lot of note-bending that is actually kind of annoying at times. Vocals on the album are alright to say the best. I wasn't a fan of the screechy BM ones (which, when done right, sound great, they just...didn't work well here). The lower, deathier ones are very good, and the bassy background vocals near the end of the title track and at times during 'I Am the Temple to Eternal Death' are atmospheric enough to lend this band some deeper meaning. I guess I should highlight a few songs that are cool, so I will do that now...

The aforementioned tracks (title track and 'I Am the Temple to Eternal Death') are two of the best, along with 'Hand of Vengeance' and 'Death, I Have Become Thee'. The title track, 'Forward the Spears' starts with a great unsettling interlude, with this amazing piercing scream from out of nowhere and a catchy battle cry chorus. 'I Am the Temple...' contains some great riffage and the also already mentioned background vocals, which add atmosphere and a veil of unsettlingness to the mix. 'Hand of Vengeance' has a great drum interlude similar to Mayhem's 'In the Lies Where Upon You Lay' and some good riffage and actually pretty good use of string-bending. 'Death, I Have...' is good purely for the riffs and because of the fact that there is a very good classical acoustic break at about 2:09 where the vocals belch out blasphemy as the drums and guitars echo menacingly, until the madness continues. Not one of the best of 2003, but pretty close. I'm looking forward to another album soon.

Submitted by Tony on 3/20/2005

I think I just found my new favorite band here and their name is, of course, Forest of Impaled. With a name like that and their album entitled Forward the Spears, I expected to hear some pissed-off, chaotic music. After digesting this insanity for the past week on my CD player, I must say I was pretty impress with this release.

Playing a style of speed-injected in-your-face blacken thrash metal, Forest of Impaled will conquer all with their release and gain new fans as well. The moment the Title track begins, you’re be taken back and be forced to listen to what they have to say. With song titles like “I Am the Temple to Eternal Death”, “Hand of Vengeance”, and “Death I Have Become Thee”, you’ll know that this band obviously have A LOT of negative issues to throw around. So the verdict is: this is a great release from an underrated band and a great part of your metal collection. Forward the Spears will get 8.5/10, go now and buy.