176 days till W:O:A 2023.
After Amorphis' Tales Of The Thousand Lakes resonated so well with me, I went straight on to the next melodic death metal band of the Wacken line-up: Be'lakor.
Be'lakor is an Australian melodic death metal band formed in 2004. I wanna say it is a relatively new band, because the early 2000s seem to be the years my brain just stopped acknowledging time... Actually it's been nearly 20 years since their formation, so "new" is probably not the right attribute to use. Anyhow...Be'lakor take their name from the eponymous demon from the Warhammer universe. They have released five studio albums so far. I've picked their second album Stone's Reach (2009) for my blog article as I was immediately drawn to the cover art and it was the first one I've listened to. By now I have listened to four of their five releases, Vessels (2016) being the only one I haven't listened to so far.
Be'lakor brings you melodic death metal with a strong progressive drift. The single tracks are quite long with 8 minutes on average and this is done on all Be'lakor releases. There are long instrumental passages, acoustic passages and keyboard/piano sections in all tracks, balanced by faster riffing and blasting drums. George Kosmas' growls are low and dark and they never dominate the songs. All the songs have a fluid feel and moody/doomy atmosphere that lets my thoughts wander. It is perfect music to ponder, to write and to work.
If you are looking for hit singles and catchy choruses, you are out of luck here. It is not an album to sing along to. And I have to admit, even after listening to the album for several times now, it is hard to pick a favourite. Not a bad thing. Just a different listening experience.
In each track there are parts that are really good, that stand out. And while you listen to them, they are absolutely stunning. I just have a hard time remembering them and that is a bit frustrating. I cannot tell you my favourite parts of each song now after listening to them. But I can tell you there are great parts all over: dreamy acoustig guitar intros, feral growls, a lot of crashing cymbals (this actually really stuck out to me and I love it!), soaring guitar solos, powerful riffing, piano breakdowns, tempo changes, beautiful melodies and atmospheric synth intermissions.
Stone's Reach is best heard in one go. It is quite immersive. Get out a glass of red wine, stare into the darkness and enjoy.
Favourite tracks: Venator, Outlive the Hand, Countless Skies.
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