16/09/2004 
Prolusio:
Acies Sigillum
Sons
Of Belial
Chariot
Fire
Abysmal
Hate
Legio
Inferi
Mark
Of The Beast
Armageddon
Revelation
Scythe
Of Death
Thomas
Backelin - Vocals, Guitar
Hjalmar
Nielsen - Lead Guitar
Anders
Backelin - Bass
Micke
Backelin - Drums
distributed in Switzerland by Irascible
Distribution 
 " |
| Revelation - the 7th Seal |
| Nocturnal Beast |
review by Boris "Azrael"
Witta ___ 
Slowly and fragile it begins, the calm before the storm, and you know, something very big, impressive, dark and threatening is coming, there is no way to escape, no way to hide. Clean guitars, strumming and innocent, but not for a long time. Because now it starts: The hellish gates are open and the black lava is streaming out of it, destroying, merciless and brutal.
“Prolusio: Acies Sigillum”. Heavy, dark and hateful guitars which spread such a dark and evil atmosphere from the first second on, a slow rhythm with ineffable great riffs and a voice which recites dark poetry. A fantastic begin. Then the song gets faster and turns into a hyper-aggressive Black Metal-hymn. This is the beginning of “The Seal Of Belial”, the 5th strike of the Swedish Lord Belial. This album is essential for every kind of Extreme Metal-fans, it doesn’t matter if you like Death, True or Melodic Black Metal, this album is a truly satisfaction. Lord Belial are true – and they are not. Included in these 47:32 minutes, there are uncountable guitar melodies, cold, freezing, dark, but so beautiful, that – during you are listening to “The Seal Of Belial” – they will burn into your mind and never let you go again. Some songs, for example “Legio Inferi”, which starts with Bathory-like acoustic guitars, or also “Mark Of The Beast” include a female voice, which isn’t dominating, it just appears to strenghten the chorus, and this female voice is really great, sounding like a black-winged goddess and giving goose-skin on and on. Beside these songs, there are also lots of crushers which are more raw and a different kind of aggressive, like the almost-titletrack “Sons Of Belial”, and I think a trademark of “The Seal Of Belial” is that all songs – beside the opening “Prolusio: Acies Sigillum” are very long, at least five minutes. And Lord Belial are able to hold the aggression, the infernal and sometimes obscure atmosphere, the originality and the high level on the whole album.
Thomas Backelin’s voice is extremly hateful, always at the border to insanity. To the guitars I have to say that they sound enormously powerful, full of energy and creating a huge sound-wall and as I said before, the perform these magic epic melodies, and sometimes – like in the final “Scythe Of Death” (a re-recording from the titletrack of the MCD “Scythe Of Death” from 2003) – they also play a well placed melodic solo. By the way, this song starts very sacral with organs and the fantastic female voice appears again during the chorus.
The
tempo
during the songs always changes, but of course there
are tons of fast and furious blastbeats. It’s just a great, an extreme
force which comes out from the boxes of the CD-player and it’s very,
very great to perform headbanging in your room. This opus is obvious and
without doubt the highlight of Lord Belial’s discography and it will
be very hard for the band to top “The Seal Of Belial”. Great!!
rating: 9/10
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