Paramaecium - Within The Ancient Forest (Reissue 2022) |

The Tree Does Not Cover The Forest

(Bombworks Records – 2022)

The Bombworks Records label continues to do an excellent job rescuing from oblivion old Metal gems that were out of print and very difficult to get. In this case it’s the turn of one of the masterpieces of Paramaecium, Australian Death/Doom Metal band, more precisely their second album, “Within The Ancient Forest”, originally released in 1996, in an edition catalogued as “Gold Disc Edition”, belonging to the series that Bombworks Recors started with several cult bands.

I still remember the first time I heard this album. It really left me in shock and I’m not a big fan of the style, but I always had the impression that Paramaecium was for great things. At first listen you could tell that there was something more than interesting here. This work marks an appreciable difference with its predecessor “Exhumed Of The Earth” and it has to do with a better production and a greater musical amplitude, taking things to another level much more pretentious of course. In this case, it is worth noting the greater orchestration, better instrumentation and quite elaborate compositions. There is not a great guitar work, except in the arrangements, but the work of Jayson Sherlock behind the drumheads stands out, in quite elaborate compositions.
“Within The Ancient Forest” is a proposal of Paramaecium to go into an ancient forest (worth the redundancy), consisting of just 7 songs, most of them of great length, and that enclose in its entirety a story that the band manages to tell throughout the album and that maintains a compositional and lyrical unity of great level. It is not for less, the vocalist, leader and main responsible of the band, Andrew Tompkins is besides musician a prolific writer. So in addition to music, we will find a fantasy and allegorical tale of high lyrical level, leaving aside the classic cliché of Christian bands. In this case, those who are looking for that “face to face” message that makes more than one person happy, will not find it here, keep going.
The album opens with “In Exordium”, a beautiful piano intro with a melancholic melancholic voice that opens the story that Paramaecium wants to tell us, becoming also the shortest song of this work. It is followed by “Song Of The Ancient” with an impeccable combination of Tompkins’ guttural voice, Sue Bock’s female voice and the orchestration of the guitars, standing out as one of the high points of the album. “I’m Not Alive” and ‘The Grave My Soul’ are the most evident connection with their previous work ‘Exhumed Of The Earth’ from a clear musical point of view. “Gone Is My Former Resolve” has an interesting instrumentation and the combination of Tompkins and Sue Bock’s clean vocals, possessing a string arrangement and a lament-like singing that achieves another of the high points of this work.

With “On My Darkest Hour” there is a more Death Metal-like Paramaecium, mediated by Rosemary Sutton’s soprano vocals. The ending with “Darkness Dies” is epic. A melodic, melancholic, dark but with an enormous majesty. It is like the perfect ending for this story that Paramaecium tells us through “Within The Ancient Forest”. It is worth mentioning that it is not the same to listen to each track in isolation. It is recommended to listen to the album in its entirety and in the order proposed by the band. That is the best way to enjoy an underestimated work that, thanks to this re-release, is rescued from oblivion.
It goes without saying that the production work done is very good. In this case, we have a “Gold Edition” copy with a booklet that has the lyrics, information, technical data, and other stuff, as well as very good period photographs. In addition it has, as all the Bombworks Records series, a kind of letter or sticker, of excellent quality that has the data that it is necessary to have present with respect to this disc and Paramaecium. It is really a worthwhile edition, and be aware that it also has a vinyl edition. To get it, you can enter https://boonesoverstock.com