
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
swedish label Selbstmord Services, but the album release was delayed of
1 year, 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 apparently disappeared for
personal 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 late 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 late 2007.
"Negative Megalomania" will be also re-released on CD in the USA by Season Of
Mist on July 31 2007! In the meantime, the band is playing some
live-shows around Europe to support the new album, and it's working on
the 5th full-lenght studio-album, to be released during 2008. The utter
mystery enshrouds the making of this 5th Opus, and as leader Herr
Morbid said: "All the things I could announce about the making of a new
FT album are always to be considered completely unreliable, since I
never know how far the inspiration will take my songwriting. So I
really never know how the album will sound in the end.. Plus, I like to
confuse the audience so they never know how the new FT album will
actually sound until it's finally released, they don't know what to
expect." ... ..
FORGOTTEN
TOMB 2007 is:
HERR
MORBID: Vocals + Guitars
RAZOR
SK: Guitars
ALGOL:
Bass
ASHER:
Drums
OFFICIAL
RELEASES 2000-2007:
"Obscura
Arcana Mortis" Demo-MCD (Self-Produced) - 2000
"Songs
To Leave" CD/LP (Selbstmord Services) - 2002
"Springtime
Depression" CD (Adipocere Rec.) - 2003
"Springtime
Depression" 2LP (Blut & Eisen Prod.) - 2003
"Love's
Burial Ground" CD (Adipocere Rec.) - 2004
"Songs
To Leave" [re-release] CD (Adipocere Rec.) - 2005
"Negative
Megalomania" CD (Avantgarde Music) -
2007
"Negative
Megalomania" LP (Avantgarde Music) - 2007
"Negative Megalomania" [USA re-release] CD (Season Of Mist) - 2007
"Obscura
Arcana Mortis: The Demo Years" [re-release] CD (Eerie Art Rec.) - 2007
"Love's
Burial Ground" 2LP (Adipocere Rec.) - 2007
FUTURE
RELEASES (2008):
New Album, CD/LP - 2008