When Doom Metal bands in the 90's started to use the noir introspection from Gothic Rock names as THE SISTERS OF MERCY, then was born what many call Doom/Gothic Metal. The beautiful musical aesthetics is something fascinating until today, and the genre still gives many good works, even after the flood of bands that were sold as Gothic Metal (personally, this writer can't accept such label for endless reasons). And FORGOTTEN, a quintet from Turkey, still has a lot of to offer to the fans, as becomes clear after hearing "Of Past and Passion", the band's latest work.

If you're a fan from PARADISE LOST during "Draconian Times" age, MY DYING BRIDE on their "Turn Loose the Swans" days, TIAMAT, KATATONIA and SENTENCED, you'll love the band, because it's heavy and has some very good aggressive grunts, but the whole musical aesthetics is melancholic and bitter. And the band's melodies are truly creative and powerful. It's not the newest thing on Earth, but their musical work has its appeal, its personal charm. "Of Past and Passion" was mixed and mastered by Deniz Durdag, and the result of the whole work on the sound production is a lovely and almost perfect sound quality. It's clean, heavy and aggressive in the due proportions, and the set of instrumental tunes used on the songs is very good, allowing the instruments to be fully understood.

The band uses long lengths of time to express their musical ideas (that's the reason of only five songs are presents on "Of Past and Passion"). The title song has a charming contrast between melancholic Gothic moments and harsh and hard ones, showing excellent vocals and guitar parts. "Blue Rain" is the shortest song using vocals, but shows the same balance between melancholy parts with Doom/Death Metal moments, and the work on bass guitar and drums is really good. "The Serpent Once You Were" is the longest song, so you can see the changes of ambiences contrasting constantly, with a dense and somber energy flowing from its melodies. "Remnants of a Faint Memory" and "Lethargic" are instrumental songs used to create some deeper and dense ambiances (although the last one uses some distorted guitars' parts).

Yes, "Of Past and Passion" is a very good work, and FORGOTTEN has talent to create even better music. For now, let yourself be drowned by their music.