"Days are flying by, worlds are colliding, lives are lost. Lingering in a long, lost past I find myself every day. Through all of the black clouds of poison one can barely breathe. Tormented by the burden that we all must carry, mankind wanders on a dying planet. There is no escape..."
...is what a vision on the world could be. Not a vision I share, but I can imagine that some people do. Nevertheless, this is how I see doom metal.

I'll be honest. When I first heard [i]Anima Mundi[/i], it didn't quite make me happy. Slow riffs, atmospheric keyboards, a lot of clean vocals with a single grunt in the middle and a lot more of the same. Now, after listening to the album a couple of times, that feeling hasn't completely vanished, but it has loosened a bit. It is not a bad record, not at all.
The second song on the album, [i]Sephiroth[/i], has all of the previously mentioned ingredients. Yet there is one thing that it has what other songs on [i]Anima Mundi[/i] don't have. In the last two minutes of the song, a riff different from all others can be heard. Prequeled by the words 'I am forsaken', this devastating, melodic riff comes crashing forward. Guided by keyboards and atmospheric guitarleads, it is truly a pleasure to listen to.
[i]Carpe Diem[/i] also has a riff of the same kind, yet it isn't of the same superior class as the above mentioned.
[i]The Poet's Nightmare[/i] is a cited poem guided by synthesizers. This is not my style at all. I can't quite focus on the words with the synthesizers. Obviously, they were used to create a certain atmosphere, but I think it missed its goal.

Altogether, [b]Forsaken[/b] have managed to�create a decent doom album. The only thing I would wish for are more grunts, less clean vocals and more variety in the riffs. For the doom fans: give it a go. The production and sound are good: you will like it and you might even love it.

[b]Absolute favorite song: Sephiroth[/b]

[b]Line-Up:[/b]
Leo Stivala: vocals
Sean Vukovic: guitars
Albert Bell: bass
Mario Ellul: keyboards
Simeon Gatt: drums

[b]Tracklist:[/b]
1. Kindred Veil
2. Sephiroth
3. The Poet's Nightmare
4. Whispering Soul
5. The Eyes of Prometheus
6. Carpe Diem
7. All is Accomplished