Be'Lakor - Of Breath And Bone

Be'lakor are a band I’ve been meaning to get round to listening to for a while now. Mainly because every single music recommendation service I have signed up for has recommended them. With the discovery of their latest album, Of Breath And Bone, on the money-pit that is Bandcamp I thought it about time I gave it a whirl.


Cut from the same cloth as melodeath legends Insomnium and recent favourites Omnium Gatherum, Be'lakor have presented a beautifully crafted melodic death album to the world while eschewing a name that ends in “-um”. Stylistically sitting about halfway between the previously mentioned bands, Be'lakor incorporate thundering rhythms and lyrical dexterity with intricate melody and a healthy helping of blast beats and crunchy riffage.


Lyrically the songs on Of Breath And Bone are one of two sorts. The earlier tracks are cryptic but clear enough to infer the disquieting gist, and the latter are fully fledged stories of loss and despair, as is fitting for the genre. I have quite enjoyed sitting with the lyrics and deciphering the songs as I listen. Some I still have no clue about, but even the imagery evoked by the short choruses is packed with mystery and gothic charm.


Even the songs with complete stories can take some deciphering. Absit Omen, for instance, seems for all the world cryptic and impenetrable on first listen, but a couple of goes in and with the lyrics handy there is an “Oooh!” moment when it clicks. In Parting is another brilliant track telling a heavy hitting story of loss and ignorance that gets all the way to the crushing finale before eliciting a wide-eyed “holy shit” from this listener.


The nature of the tales, the delicately balance melody and heaviness, the morality plays and the tales if helplessness are all captured, somewhat whimsically perhaps, in the cover art. A slightly modified version of Gabriel Ferrier’s Chaperon Rouge insinuates an unseen, unsettling extra depth to the tales within.


On the whole I am very glad I gave this album a listen. Now I need to go back and acquire the band’s first two albums which, from what I hear on the Internet, are just as good. I think Be'lakor’s only flaw is that they are in a saturated market. In the last 5 years the number of melodeath bands has risen immensely and it becomes hard to stand out from the crowd. It’s so easy for the music to disappear into the noise. To become “just another beautifully crafted melodic death album.” Omnium Gatherum’s latest failed to inspire as its predecessor, New World Shadows, had done, not because it was bad, but because it was nothing new. Thankfully for Be'lakor the melodeath ingredients have been added in just the right quantities and mixed in just the right way to make something worthy of remark.

Dark Tranquillity get all doomy

Hot on the heels of yesterday's Amon Amarth flavoured excitement comes today's news that Dark Tranquillity have released a preview of the new album Construct. The new song, titled For Broken Words, is a doomy sort of a song. A departure from recent DT records and the band's signature style. The band's spokesperson is quoted to have said "This is one of the heaviest and most brooding tracks from "Construct", so it's a good candidate for the online premiere song position. More music from the album will be presented shortly."

Have a listen here:

Amon Amarth reveal that new album will be about Vikings

Amon Amarth have caused uproar in the online metal community by releasing a free track from their new album. And it's the title track, too! Deceiver Of The Gods will be properly released eventually when they get around to it, possibly June. In the meantime, have a listen to this:

Dark Tranquillity - Zero Distance EP plus Bonus DT and Laethora Videos!

I'm not really sure why I forgot about this back in April, but I did. Dark Tranquillity released a new "virtual EP" (i.e. no physical product) called Zero Distance, and released another one of their mind-boggling videos courtesy of Aduro Labs, which is made up of Niklas Sundin, Peter Herneheim and Love Andersson. Sundin, if you remember, was responsible for the last 3 DT videos I posted here.

The EP is available from iTunes and Amazon and is a good, solid new load of exactly what you want from Dark Tranquillity. It's five track listing goes as follows:

1. Zero Distance
2. Out Of Gravity
3. Star Of Nothingness
4. To Where Fires Cannot Feed
5. The Bow And The Arrow

As if the one Aduro video wasn't enough, here is another by Niklas Sundin himself. This one is for The Sightless by Laethora, a band made up mostly of members of The Provenance, and with Mr Sundin thrown in on guitars and videos for good measure.

I'd recommend viewing the HD version of these full screen with the music very loud. But I think that goes without saying!

Aquilus - Classical black metal infusion for the mind

I discovered Aquilus and their latest album Griseus quite by accident on bandcamp recently, and was immediately intrigued. As far as I can tell (although I could be wrong) this is a one man project combining black and folk metal with contemporary classical music. One Horace Rosenqvist is the only listed member, and if he is really doing this alone then I can only admire his significant musical talent.

The music itself is reminiscent of many things; Agalloch, perhaps, for the black metal/folk infusion and vocal style; Opeth, for the proggier guitar riffs that punctuate the songs; Handel, Grieg, Vivaldi, and any number of modern classical musicians for the beautifully intricate, occasionally delicate, sometimes soaring classical sections that fit seamlessly between the disquieting rasp of the black metal and jangly folk guitars.

At over and hour long, with some of the songs stretching over quarter of an hour each, this is a time consuming yet thoroughly rewarding listening experience. While there are 8 songs on the album, I have so far listened to it all at once several times over so it has taken on the feeling of a single 80 minute soundscape, ever rolling, rising, falling as the styles shift seamlessly new parts appear, vanish and reappear to make sure it never feels repetitive or dull.

If you like classical and metal, and even more if you like the sound of combining the two, I’d heartily recommend giving this a listen. According to the one Facebook post that has so far been made on the band page, the second album is already in production. Watch this space, then, I suppose!