When you think of early Norwegian black metal, you picture chaos, grim and noise. Forgotten Woods was different. Their first Full-length album “As the Wolves Gather”, came out in 1994 through No Colours Records, and it feels like it came from a colder, lonelier place compared to what Norwegian BM sounded back then. It’s not about rage or power. It’s about exhaustion. The album starts with “Eclipsed” and right away you can tell something’s off, in a good way. The sound is raw, the riffs just repeat and repeat until they start to fall apart. The drums don’t really push anything forward, they just hold the line. Everything feels like it’s slowly collapsing on itself, but it works. What I like about this album is that it doesn’t try to be evil or scary. It just feels human, desperate. “Through Dark and Forgotten Valleys” sounds like someone staring at the wall for too long, lost and dissonance. The guitars repeat sad melodies that sound lost in time. 
There’s no big moment, no climax. It just pulls you deeper and deeper until the song fades out and you realize you’re still stuck in that same grey mood. The bass here stands out more than most early black metal. Rune Vedaa plays these slow lines that give a weird pulse to everything. Vocals are another story. He doesn’t sound demonic, or maybe it sometimes does. His voice cracks and drags, and there’s no effect hiding it. It’s the kind of vocal that sounds like someone’s last try at screaming before they lose it. That’s what gives this album its power. It feels real, even too real sometimes.
The title track “As the Wolves Gather” is probably the best example of what this record is about. It doesn’t build up or explode, it just circles the same idea again and again. It feels like a punishment, not a performance. The closer “Dimension of the Blackest Dark” keeps that same emptiness until the very end. There’s no sense of closure. It just ends, like life does sometimes. This album came before anyone was using terms like depressive black metal. Forgotten Woods didn’t invent that style on purpose, they just lived it. That’s why it sounds different. There’s no acting here. Just real coldness and detachment. Listening to “As the Wolves Gather” now still feels strange. It’s not shocking or violent, but it leaves you hollow. It’s too honest. Forgotten Woods didn’t care about fame, or the “scene.” They made something that turns away from everything, even from itself. And that’s why it still stands. Now go and listen to Joyless!
