Dark Forest is a one-man pagan metal band based in Calgary, Canada. <br/>

Members

David Parks - Guitars, Bass, Keyboard, Vocals, Mouth Harp, Drum Programming

Live Session Musicians

Mark Zemlak - Guitars

TJ MacLean - Bass Guitars

Don Mitchell (Lords Of The Mountain) - Keyboards

Griffin Kissack (Lords Of The Mountain, Nebucadnezzer) - Drums

Discography

Demo 2005 (Demo, 2005)

Aurora Borealis (Full-Length, 2006)

History

Dark Forest was created in late 2003 by David Parks. The vision of Dark Forest remains to create a style of atmospheric metal fueled by nature and heathenism.

Parks began the initial writing process in late 2003 with the song titled Among Silent Pine. While not a metal song, but rather a nature styled soundtrack, it laid the groundwork for Dark Forest songs to come. The writing process continued from here until early 2005. A four track Demo was arranged and released that summer; this was titled Demo 2005. It received many positive reviews, and was hailed one of the most promising demos of that year.

Demo 2005 broke out into the local metal community that summer, and gained much respect and support. Parks continued the writing process to lay the groundwork for his first full-length album.
During this same time, a live interest started to appear. A live session line-up was assembled in September of 2005, only two months after the release of Demo 2005. The initial line-up consisted of already established musicians in the Calgary area.

The live line-up played four promotional shows for Demo 2005 in the local area in 2006. With much success, interest also grew in Europe during this time. Media sources labeled Dark Forest Vinlandic Pagan Black Metal, but the members prefer to be labeled Canadian Heathen Metal.
The month of March 2006 marked the completion of the writing process for Aurora Borealis. It was self-recorded by Parks in summer 2006, and released in September.

Surpassing the amount of support from Demo 2005, Aurora Borealis broke the band through into the pagan metal underground. Aurora Borealis got much attention for being a self-released full-length. Dark Forest was invited to play the Heathen Crusade II festival in the United States shortly after the release. Other performing acts included Bal-Sagoth, Vreid, Skyforger, Månegarm, and more. This marked the first out of Canada performance by the line-up.

In March 2007, Dark Forest signed with Bleak Art Records to re-issue Aurora Borealis, and to release the next full-length album. Parks currently continues the writing process for a new album, and has posted a new demo track online; titled Bjarni Herjólfsson ca. 985CE.

Additional Information

David Parks and Mark Zemlak are cousins

Demo 2005 is limited to 150 copies; all of which are sold out. The first 80 copies were hand numbered.

Aurora Borealis original pressing is limited to 500 copies.

External links

Official Dark Forest Website

Dark Forest at MySpace

Bleak Art Records