Forest Veil's "Zoolights" Searches for Meaning in the Void of Loss

By Cris Lankenau

[DOOM FOLK] A week after losing her father, Monica Metzler received several text messages from his cellphone. The cryptic, single-word message, conveyed repeatedly, was "Zoolights." Metzler interpreted this as guidance from the spirit world, and traveled to places like South Korea and Oaxaca, Mexico, on a "death ritual," wherein she gathered stories from strangers about their own experiences with losing a loved one. Zoolights is a moody, ethereal culmination of these transcendent experiences, and Metzler—aka Forest Veil, formerly Moniker—does her best to take the listener along. The tracks are a juxtaposition of found-sound recordings and soft, meditative songs that serve as a catharsis from the crushing void that comes after a parent dies. "Footnotes" sets a somber tone for a record whose themes never muddy the beauty of Metzler's smoky voice and dexterous finger-picking. "Bitter Root," another highlight, could pass for Chan Marshall giving a loose, inventive reinterpretation to Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)." Luke Hall produces and keeps a vibrant backbeat that uplifts but never shifts focus from the album's author. Johanna Warren—whose Spirit House Records is releasing Zoolights—adds flourishes of flute and vocals to the album's centerpiece, "Sunrise/Sunset," where a strained lullaby of soothing voices builds to a compact climax of distorted guitar phrases. It's the moment where Metzler moves on from despair and accepts the inevitability of passing time, and all the loss and change it enforces.

Related: "Johanna Warren Travels Deep Into the Emotional Murk On Gemini I."

SEE IT: Forest Veil plays Rontoms, 600 E Burnside St., with Johanna Warren, on Sunday, Oct. 16. 8 pm. Free. 21+.

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