Biography:

The band was born in March 1999 from the will of Herr Morbid and another mysterious musician known as Torment. After a few months Torment left the band and Herr Morbid decided to continue as a one-man band. The first, self-produced MCD "Obscura Arcana Mortis" was recorded in May 1999 but released only 1 year later (June 2000). The style on this MCD was an obscure, occult and aggressive Black Metal with some depressive shades. In the meantime Herr Morbid decided to move towards a more...... Expand full biography»

Biography:

The band was born in March 1999 from the will of Herr Morbid and another mysterious musician known as Torment. After a few months Torment left the band and Herr Morbid decided to continue as a one-man band. The first, self-produced MCD "Obscura Arcana Mortis" was recorded in May 1999 but released only 1 year later (June 2000). The style on this MCD was an obscure, occult and aggressive Black Metal with some depressive shades. In the meantime Herr Morbid decided to move towards a more melancholic, depressive and slow-paced Doom/Black Metal approach, and some new songs in this vein were written between 1999 and 2000. The result was the first full-lenght album "Songs To Leave", recorded during the year 2000 and 2001. With this album FORGOTTEN TOMB contributes to the birth of a new sub-genre in Black Metal, the so-called "Suicidal Black Metal", together with a few other bands such as Shining and Abyssic Hate. In 2001 the band signed a deal with the rip-off swedish label Selbstmord Services, in fact the album release was delayed due to the misfunctional way of working of the label itself. In the end, "Songs To Leave" was finally released in August 2002 on CD and Limited LP. The album received enthusiastic reactions by both critics and Black/Doom Metal fans worldwide, selling several thousand copies and establishing FORGOTTEN TOMB as one of the most promising bands in the Extreme Metal field. In the beginning of 2003 the band entered the famous Abyss Studios in Sweden to record the second full-lenght album, titled "Springtime Depression". Engineered by renomed producer Tommy Tagtgren, the album featured Wedebrand (former Shining member) on drums, with Herr Morbid still playing all the other instruments. Originally meant to be released on Selbstmord Services, the album was unleashed on CD through french label Adipocere Records instead (during June 2003), while the 2LP limited version was released on german Blut & Eisen Prod . "Springtime Depression" redefined the FORGOTTEN TOMB' sound, getting rid of other influences and creating its own, typical style. The album was hailed by fans worldwide and all the reviews on Metal magazines/webzines were still totally enthusiastic, making "Springtime Depression" a cult-album instantly (notice that this album today is considered by many the milestone of the band, and it has influenced hundreds of bands around the world during the years following its release). In the meantime FORGOTTEN TOMB became a live-band too, with a line-up formed by Herr Morbid on Rhythm Guitar/Vocals + some session musicians. A few gigs were played in Italy, then in the following months an official 4-piece line-up was announced, including the new members Razor SK on Lead/Clean Guitars, Algol (already member of the band HIEMS) on Bass and Asher (already member of DOMINA NOCTIS) on drums. With this line-up FORGOTTEN TOMB played several successful gigs all around Europe in the fall of 2003, both as headliner and in festivals. In the beginning of 2004 the band has recorded its 3rd full-lenght album, named "Love's Burial Ground", released in September 2004 on CD through Adipocere Records. The original cover artwork -eloquently showing the picture of a child with a gun in her mouth- got censored, so the album was released with an alternative artwork in a slipcase edition. This album showed the natural progression of the band, able to evolve without forgetting the beginnings, and introduced the new additional member of the band: Mr. Nordvargr from Sweden (main-mind of MZ412, NORDVARGR), who played 3 Ambient/Industrial intermezzos. The band played several gigs in Europe during 2004, often as headliner in some Doom and Black Metal festivals. During 2005 the band re-released the previously sold-out album "Songs To Leave" in a new digipack edition on Adipocere Rec. and then took a break, to focus on some side-projects and to clear up the mind about the future direction of the new material. In the meantime FORGOTTEN TOMB started to write and rehearse brand new songs between Fall 2005 and Spring 2006, erasing the rumours spread by people on the Internet about a split-up. In the meantime, Nordvargr has disappeared for still unknown reasons, so the band decided to go on without him. After signing a new deal with the italian well-known label Avantgarde Music, the band entered the studio in May 2006 to record the 4th full-lenght opus, grimly titled "Negative Megalomania". Released in January 2007, this album shows a significative evolution of the band, which added many new elements to their classic style, creating a bleak, perverse and apocalyptic vision of life and future. The album remarks the leadership of FORGOTTEN TOMB in the Dark Metal genre, and it finds its highlight in the first possible Single of the band in its career, with "The Scapegoat" song, which shows the surprising clean vocals of mastermind Herr Morbid. As the band itself said, this album opened up a new beginning for FORGOTTEN TOMB, and the future can only look brighter for this sensational italian act. After the release of their new masterpiece "Negative Megalomania" in January, the first months of 2007 will see the re-release of the band's old demotape through the italian label Eerie Art Records, due to the massive request of fans for it. The CD, named "Obscura Arcana Mortis: The Demo Years", includes the remastered original Demo + 2 live bonus-tracks recorded in 2004. It is limited to 1000 hand-numbered copies and it features new graphics and never-seen-before pictures. The vinyl versions of both "Negative Megalomania" and "Love's Burial Ground", featuring bonus-material, are already in the making too, and they will be released in mid-2007. In the meantime, the band is planning some live-shows around Europe to support the new album, and it's working on the 5th full-lenght studio-album, simply titled "Forgotten Tomb", to be released during 2008. The new material has been described by leader Herr Morbid with the following words: "A modern mixture of '80s Dark Rock and Metal. All the typical melancholic elements of FORGOTTEN TOMB are still there, but this time we've got a Dark Rock edge too, like The Cult or Sisters Of Mercy used to do in the '80s, with many memorable clean-vocals. I think many new songs could actually be smash-hits." «Collapse biography