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Nostalgia is supposed to be a good thing. The word’s connotation, at least in everyday life, is overwhelmingly positive. Yet, in musical contexts, if an album sounds like something from the past, it’s cast aside, degraded. I’m guilty of this mentality, too. It’s just that we have such vast opportunities to hear new music at pretty much all times. Why would we regress to sounds we heard last week, last month or last year? I sound negative, but this isn’t that kind of review. So Long Forgotten made me realize I should celebrate albums with the ability to revert me to those hallowed albums of yesteryear (or more realistically for our generation, yestersecond). I agonized over whether I should just come out and say what classic album Beneath Our Noble Heads reminds me of. However, I don’t want to give anyone false hopes or expectations, but I do want people to listen to So Long Forgotten. Against my better judgment I decided to insert a few helpful clues into this write-up. Keep your eyes peeled.
Beneath Our Noble Heads doles out heavy doses of ambient indie rock. Micah Boyce has a scratchy, unpolished delivery, which makes harmonies on songs like “The Color On His Hands” and “Pleasantries Behind” all the more worthwhile. So Long Forgotten would be right at home on the moon, blasting bouncing basslines and ambient, shoegazing grandiosities. The scene hasn’t produced music like this since, let’s say, 2003. “Harlot” takes its dear sweet time with Joe Brown’s bass grooves and Dustin Hoke’s lethargic riffs filling up the stereo. Boyce finally enters, sounding very far off: “It’s all the same / And it’s where I belong.” All too often these days, songs speed towards climaxes offering short-term fixes to overdone sounds. So Long Forgotten make us wait and they make it worth our time. The lyrics of Beneath Our Noble Heads are undeniably Christian, speaking of wars, unanswerable questions and the like. If anything, though, they speak of morality and a dying world. Religious or not, it’s hard to disagree. During a particularly melodic moment in “Centuries Of Knowledge Mistaken For Omniscience” we hear the words: “O no, these arms aren’t reaching / Maybe they’re too stiff / Maybe they’re too thin / Beneath our noble heads we contain the hearts of children / If only we could lose our heads, and let the youth become our necks.” A wonderful, thought-provoking sentiment; ponder it for a while.
“O, How Fair, How Elegant An Evil” takes languid guitar manifestations to the next level. Just as the strums hit overdrive, Cameron Yergler and Hoke put the pedal to the metal (so to speak!). Barriers and conventional song structures are shattered. The true highlight comes when roughly layered vocals and a violin clash in discordant bliss. As you can clearly see, this stuff really brings the pretentiousness out in me. I should be peeved, but right now I’m content: At this moment I’m listening to better music than you. Harsh, but true.
- Blake Solomon - Absolutepunk.net
So Long Forgotten is a band that I fell in love with after seeing them for the first time last November with As Cities Burn. I must say just by talking to these guys I could tell they were amazing guys.
Beneath Our Noble Heads is for fans of As Cities Burn, Manchester Orchestra, Mewithoutyou, and even Thrice. It’s also very diverse in the sense of being dark in some songs and being straight forward lyrically to moving into a upbeat folk feel.
Musically Beneath Our Noble Heads is epic and beautiful. The guitar work reminds me alot of As Cities Burn which is beautiful yet has a dark feel to it. I also love the strings in this album they are present in almost every song which gives it a real indie and earthy sound to it which brings out the Manchester Orchestra in this band.
Vocals at first I am not going to lie took me some time getting used to. They are very unique so it had to take some time to grow on me. Micah the lead vocalist will scream/yell emotionally throughout this album to emphasize his message in certain lyrics which really grabs me emotionally.
Overall I would give this album a 8.5 out of 10. I give it this rating because this album has a feel of so many bands that I love and that I listed above. So Long Forgotten isn’t among those great bands yet, but I believe I have found a “Diamond in the Rough” with this band and soon they will be. - IndieVision Music
Discography
Romance- full length- 2005
Beneath Our Noble Heads- full length- 2007
Baptism- EP- 2008
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Bio
So Long Forgotten's hard work, perseverance, and passion are the edicts of life and the road they travel. Having found each other in separate bands, their personal passions and intensity brought them together. So Long Forgotten's spiritual integrity bypasses musical wallowing and goes straight for your emotions with their intensely personal lyrics and dense blasts of guitars. This band has the guts and they talent to enter a brave new world of sincerity. So Long Forgotten works as a collective, each member is vital for the band to thrive and they keep themselves running at full speed. The music they make sticks to them like an electrical shock, the lyrics are a journey into their own hearts where they give their fans insights to new levels of self-actualization. When they are not on the road, they are busy booking their next tour and writing new music.
The band self-released their debut album, Romance, in late 2005. They spent most of the spring and the entire summer of 2006 on their first national tour linking up with bigger regional bands such as, The Tide, from Michigan, and Bastian, from Illinois, and making their fourth annual stop to play at Cornerstone Music Festival. So Long Forgotten's sophomore album, Beneath Our Noble Heads, was an awakening for the band. Each of the guys honed in on their individual strengths, so as a whole, the band came into their own and turned out an album overflowing with soul. Beneath Our Noble Heads was self-released in May of 2007, the power of it was noticed by fans and fellow bands alike. In the summer of 2007, the band stuck a futon mattress in the back of their 15 passenger van and took off on the road to make music and new friends for another exciting coast-to-coast tour. In September of '07, So Long Forgotten went out on a Midwest tour with Tooth & Nail band Spoken, and a few weeks later, they went out again with Tooth & Nail/Solid State band As Cities Burn to tour the east coast. Because of this non-stop touring, So Long Forgotten has made friends with and opened for many bands including:
Straylight Run
Lucky Boys Confusion
Still Remains
Showbread
Kids in the Way
Blessed Union of Souls
Medina Lake
and many more
Micah, Joe, PJ, Dustin, and Cam will always be redefining what their best work can be, and will always be praying that every mile traveled and every show played will be better than the last.
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