Find the coverage and some great photos of this year's Devilstone Open Air written by our Lithuanian contributor Inga here>> www
Death metal is such a limitless genre. You can do whatever you'd like. It can be over the top technical or slow. Brutal or insane and it's all so good. When we made "Visions of Death" it just came out with a natural old school-ish vibe and that's great, but our newer material has a much more modern technical vibe. I love how death metal has evolved.
For me, death metal should be heavy as fuck, brutal (which doesn't necessarily mean "fast"), atmospheric and evil. If the "evil" thing is not there, you can't label yourself death metal, that's a fact. I'm so fucking close minded when it comes to metal music... I listen to the SAME hard rock, heavy, thrash, doom, death and black metal that I used to listen to 15 years ago.
Melbourne, Australia based Be'lakor (taking its moniker from a demon character of the Warhammer Fantasy tabletop game) return two years after their highly acclaimed "The Frail Tide". Compared to "The Frail Tide" Be'lakor have expanded their use of Swedish melodies and classic metal riffing alongside the interplay of acoustic - and electric sections. The growling vocals are still very reminiscent of Shape Of Despair. The light use of keyboards greatly adds to the pagan - and dark metal atmosphere. The guitar leads/solos and piano/synthesizers have gotten a more prominent and integral part in these new compositions, making them sound far more epic than on the band's previous release. With the increased melodies on guitar "Stone's Reach" combines the best of melodic death metal and European dark/pagan metal into a package that few acts can pull off, let alone match or surpass. The production by Pennydrop Audio and producer duo Warren Hammond and Phil Forbes is highly organic with a clean-cut crunchy guitar tone, audible bass lines and crisp sounding drums. The piano sections were recorded at Sing Sing Studio in Melbourne. The album was mastered at Crystal Mastering. Artwork, design and lay-out by Sheri J. Tantawy is nothing short of amazing and the booklet comes with highly professional pictures, lyrics and entensive recording information. "Stone's Reach" is the logical successor to "The Frail Tide" and expands upon that album's already considerable epic scope. Be'lakor have crafted an album that will establish them in the global dark metal scene. Alongside progressive folk metal act Ironwood, Be'lakor are the melodic dark/death metal band you need to hear this year. http://www.primecuts.com.aucomment itWouter 8
