by Eduardo RivadaviaDespite its modest early-'80s inception at the hands of England's blissfully clueless, crude, and cartoonish (errr, also brilliant, of course) Venom, black metal has emerged as one of the heavy metal movement's most diverse and astonishingly experimental subgenres, thanks to endless shape-shifting through the years as it quickly suffused the planet with its controversially anti-everything musical and lyrical philosophies. Now, as the '00s draw to a close, the style's leading creative edge appears to reside with bands focused on extended meditations steeped in folk and psychedelic music, atmospheric textures, and mystical pagan themes, e.g. Enslaved, Nachtmystium, and Wolves in the Throne Room. And it is precisely into this particular arena that Britain's latest contribution to black metal, the mysterious quartet known as A Forest of Stars, entered … Read more