Forest of Equilibrium

This is the first record made by the line-up of Lee Dorrian singing, Garry Jennings and Adam Lehan on guitars, Mark Griffiths on bass and Mike Smail on drums. Steve Gurney produced it, credited as PBL, and Mark Tempest engineered. Reverend Wolski adds keyboard and Helen Acreman flute. In 1991 what this band chose was extreme slowness. Given that the scene around them was competing on speed, in death metal and grindcore alike, the choice is itself the statement. Chris Chantler of Metal Hammer described the album as the result of a shared obsession with doom, bent out of shape by the players' own forward-leaning extremity. The sleeve painting is by Dave Patchett, who would go on illustrating the band's records for years. In February 2006 it became the twelfth album inducted into Decibel's Hall of Fame. The 2009 reissue appends the four songs of the long-unavailable 1992 Soul Sacrifice EP together with a forty-minute documentary. The running order here is the original's as printed.