New review online @ The Age of Metal webzine!
"In recent years Australia has been fast becoming a leading power in the metal community. Melodic Death metallers Be’lakor is one such band leading their home country in metal and this year released their newest opus called Of Breath and Bone. Now this album actually was released a year prior but a USA release was not possible until now. With that being said Of Breath and Bone may be Be’lakor’s finest album to date. They took everything that made their last album Stone’s Reach an impressive piece of work and improved on it tenfold.
One of the more interesting things about Be’lakor is their sound which melds melodic death metal with a progressive touch. In Of Breath and Bone we see Be’lakor refining their sound that was made present in their debut The Frail Tide and their sophomore release Stone’s Reach. The album starts with Abeyance and blast its way through to the listener’s ear. For people who think that the band is all fast riffage and double bass will realise right away that Be’lakor is not all that. One thing you will notice is that every song on average is more than 6 minutes long. It is because of this that they are able to stretch out their songs giving space for acoustic passages, strings and a plethora of interesting riffs. Another thing about Be’lakor is that for being an Australian band they have a very Scandinavian feel to them. Much of their sound can be compared to bands like Insomnium or In Mourning or even Opeth. Songs like In Parting or The Dream and the Waking, while also being some of the longest songs on the album, show them at their very best melding the heaviness with acoustic passages. Vocally, they are a bit different choosing death grunts exclusively unlike their contemporaries who would occasionally use cleans to demonstrate contrast of the heavy and light. Instead, Be’lakor uses their instrumentals to contrast the heavy from the might sections of the songs without the need for any clean vocals.
Be’lakor’s Of Breath and Bone is an album that best exemplifies their already mature sound and time will tell what sort of new tricks they will throw in for future albums. Fans of melodic death metal won’t want to miss hearing this album and this band." [Elsthon]
Link:
http://theageofmetal.com/2013/04/belakor-of-breath-and-bone-2013/
"In recent years Australia has been fast becoming a leading power in the metal community. Melodic Death metallers Be’lakor is one such band leading their home country in metal and this year released their newest opus called Of Breath and Bone. Now this album actually was released a year prior but a USA release was not possible until now. With that being said Of Breath and Bone may be Be’lakor’s finest album to date. They took everything that made their last album Stone’s Reach an impressive piece of work and improved on it tenfold.
One of the more interesting things about Be’lakor is their sound which melds melodic death metal with a progressive touch. In Of Breath and Bone we see Be’lakor refining their sound that was made present in their debut The Frail Tide and their sophomore release Stone’s Reach. The album starts with Abeyance and blast its way through to the listener’s ear. For people who think that the band is all fast riffage and double bass will realise right away that Be’lakor is not all that. One thing you will notice is that every song on average is more than 6 minutes long. It is because of this that they are able to stretch out their songs giving space for acoustic passages, strings and a plethora of interesting riffs. Another thing about Be’lakor is that for being an Australian band they have a very Scandinavian feel to them. Much of their sound can be compared to bands like Insomnium or In Mourning or even Opeth. Songs like In Parting or The Dream and the Waking, while also being some of the longest songs on the album, show them at their very best melding the heaviness with acoustic passages. Vocally, they are a bit different choosing death grunts exclusively unlike their contemporaries who would occasionally use cleans to demonstrate contrast of the heavy and light. Instead, Be’lakor uses their instrumentals to contrast the heavy from the might sections of the songs without the need for any clean vocals.
Be’lakor’s Of Breath and Bone is an album that best exemplifies their already mature sound and time will tell what sort of new tricks they will throw in for future albums. Fans of melodic death metal won’t want to miss hearing this album and this band." [Elsthon]
Link:
http://theageofmetal.com/2013/04/belakor-of-breath-and-bone-2013/