Despite 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 with their 2008 debut, The Corpse of Rebirth -- a conceptually unified five-song, hour-long manifestation of savage outbursts, dreamy reveries and every mood in between, topped with occult extrapolations upon the "seasons, celestial bodies, and recreational drug use" for what might even be perceived as eco-friendly "green" black metal.

But it doesn't take too long for seasoned consumers of this modern black metal aesthetic to realize that The Corpse of Rebirth's concept may indeed be stronger and better fleshed out than it is properly executed.

For one thing, Mister Curse's nonsensical howls and squawks are something of an acquired taste, and the violins bowed by Katheryne, Queen of the Ghosts (aka Kati Stone of My Dying Bride) generally sound too timid and just plain weak whenever they dare compete directly with the face-ripping buzzsaw guitars and blastbeat drums laid down by Mr.

T.S.

Kettleburner and the Gentleman, respectively.

And for all of the countless moments of sublime fascination yielded by the epics presented herein, A Forest of Stars' ofttimes aimless sonic meanderings ultimately prove just how difficult it is to make cohesive musical statements out of songs averaging 15 minutes in length.

Nevertheless, some listeners may still find that A Forest of Stars' overall vision caries the music to victory at day's end, but there's a long way to go before they compete with the aforementioned scene leaders.