Music has been hailed as an art for what seems to be ever since its inception, and it’s something that continues to transform into a seemingly infinite amount of shapes and forms as well as know. And while it’s theatre that usually uses music to its advantage, there are some bands that decide to flip the script and make their music feel like a true on-stage three-act theatre play. That sounds like a hell of a thing to tackle, but it’s because of wondrous acts like A Forest of Stars that we see how well that can be brought to life.

Normally, if I’m looking for over-the-top black metal it’s usually the cover art that stands out to me more than anything since that’s what I see before hearing the material, naturally. When I first saw the cover for “Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes”, you could’ve told me it was the cover for a gothic Victorian-era fiction series and I’d completely believe you, but what I got was something so much better on every feasible level possible. To described A Forest of Stars simply as psychedelic black metal wouldn’t even begin to scratch the surface of the great performance that we get with “Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes” as this group brings us a beautiful menagerie of talent to the table that is too much to accurately describe with my words. There’s so much going on within these eight tracks that just the first five minutes feel like I’ve been listening for an hour simply because A Forest of Stars has clearly mastered the art of putting so much in so little time while making it engrossing, engaging, and entertaining all the way! It takes so many listens to wrap your head properly around the glory of “Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes” that by the time you reach the end you’ve just bore witness to a phenomenal theatrical experience worthy of the world’s biggest stage.

It’s the intense approach paired with the calculated restraint and one absolutely masterful stroke right after another over and over again that makes this record so all-encompassing and another beast altogether. I’ve only come across one other band that managed to bring this sort of style to life, and A Forest of Stars makes them look like children in music class. Truly, everything about “Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes” is something to adore, be studied to death, and loved with all your heart.

LISTEN to “Grave Mounds and Grave Mistakes” on Facebook here.

LIKE A Forest of Stars on Facebook here.