Carpathian Forest formed in Norway during the early 1990s around the core partnership of Nattefrost, who handles vocals, guitar and bass, and Nordavind on guitar and bass. The pair quickly established themselves as exemplars of old-school Scandinavian “true” black metal, complete with overt devil worship, pagan ceremonies, corpse paint and an implied affinity for a criminal past. Their first recordings consisted of raw demos, the earliest of which, the 1992 Bloodlust & Perversion cassette, later received an official CD reissue in 1997. Its extreme lo-fi primitivism spread rapidly through the tape-trading underground, granting the group immediate cult recognition within the black-metal scene. A second demo, 1993’s Journey Through the Cold Moors of Svarttjern, displayed markedly sharper technical command and helped secure a contract with Avant Garde Records. With assistance from several local scene associates, the duo completed the label’s debut release, 1995’s Through Chasm, Caves and Titan Woods. The album appeared at a moment when the imprisonment of Burzum’s Varg Vikernes for the slaying of Mayhem leader and “Inner Circle” figurehead Euronymous had left many devotees seeking fresh figureheads. Rather than exploit the vacancy, Carpathian Forest withdrew from view for nearly three years. Their return arrived with 1998’s Black Shining Leather, an unexpectedly forceful statement highlighted by a striking rendition of the Cure’s “A Forest.” Nordavind departed on amicable terms soon after the 2000 album Strange Old Brew, yet the band has continued to pursue its trajectory.
