Be'lakor-Of Breath and Bone review

We now take a break from your regularly scheduled post-rock review to bring you some metal.  I often talk about metal here, but the problem lately has simply been a lack of interesting new metal releases to review.  This year has been surprisingly short on new metal that I like, as opposed to say 2010-when dozens of bands I enjoy released new music.

One of the standouts this year from the metal genre has been the brand new album from Australia's Be'lakor.  To get a feel for what this band truly sounds like, let me refer you to the more popular bringers of melodic, progressive doom metal Insomnium.  Be'lakor's sound is as close as you can get to being a carbon copy of the aforementioned band, but much more progressive in sound and structure. 

On this album, plentiful doom melodies populate the more prominent portions of the music while progressive keys and acoustic plucking fill out the sound scape.  What makes this band so interesting are the prominent doom passages filled with simplistic, soulful guitar leads that slowly build in tempo and intensity towards what you would call a climax in the music.  This band pulls off this interesting effect masterfully, never sounding too simple, but staying safely away from technical wankery.  These melodies are heartfelt and memorable

The vocals this band employ contrast with the doomier elements in that they are excessively harsh and guttural.  The style of vocals you hear with this band are mid-range growls that sound neither like black metal howling nor Cookie Monster grunts.  This singer can also hold notes with this vocal style as long as the music dictates, leading to a more interesting listening experience. 

There are many bands that play a similar style of metal to Be'lakor, but few who do it so well.  I compared them to Insomnium, but I actually enjoy this band more than I do Insomnium.  It is good enough to nod your head to, angry enough to sound appealing, and melodic enough to be memorable.  I found their previous release, "Stone's Reach" to be powerful.  "Of Breath and Bone" promises the same power, but show the band further refining their sound.  If you are into metal music, especially with harsh vocals, check out this album.  Listen below.  Thanks for listening!

FREE Music!!

Hello, friends!  Everyone loves free, well except for that cute baby in the Jimmy Fallon Capital One ads, but that's beside the point.  I'm always a fan of free music, even if I can't consider the music in question as great.  If I think it is good and not annoying and it's FREE, I've got nothing against downloading it. 

Therefore, I would like to take the time to personally thank the bands Cloud and Abigail for the free downloads of their new EPs, which have resulted in my iPod finally breaking the 4,000 song barrier.

I'd like to take a moment to talk about Cloud first.  Information on them seems to be insanely difficult to come by.  You try it.  Type the name of the artist into Google and I guarantee you won't come up with a single page relating to them.  Then how did I find out about them?  Months ago I listened to a track from their new EP on Sounds Better with Reverb.  This is some impressive keyboard-based electronic music, complete with melodic, synthetic piano sounds and atmospheric ambiance.  Cloud is a great electronica artist, and I will be looking forward to their next release.  Check out the EP "A Rush of Sun" below. Download this EP at Cloud's Bandcamp page.


Second, I happened across Abigail at No Clean Singing.  I don't read everything I see at NCS and I don't listen to everything I read, mostly because these days metal has to be something I really enjoy to purchase it.  Thankfully, I am a fan of FREE, so downloading Abigail's latest EP from 2011 was a pleasure.  No Clean Singing is a metal blog, and Abigail is a metal band.  They play loud and aggressive prog-styled metal with vicious growls and blistering howls.  Somewhere within the cacophony of sound are the roots of doom-oriented themes and melodies.  This band is similar to As Daylight Dies and Insomnia, yet heavier.  Abigail is from Romania.  They would certainly appreciate if you download their EP "It is the Night I Fear."  They are currently amping up to produce a full-length album, which I might pick up.  This music is not for the faint at heart, but it is FREE.  Download this EP at Abigail's Bandcamp page.  As always thanks for reading and enjoy!