I hope that every dark soul out there 

gets as possessed of “Nocturnal Beast” as I am  

 

Lord Belial. Listening to the atmospheric Black/ Death Metal art of this extraordinary formation means to enter another world. A world, lain in deep dark caves, a world full of shadows, whispering voices, a world full of mist and a world with a very dark, a very doomy character and an ambiente in twilight. The predecessor album of this Swedish family (Thomas, Anders and Micke are brothers – what about a tour with Krisiun?) was a fantastic piece of extreme Metal, so what about “Nocturnal Beast?” At first, I will answer the most important question: Yes. Yes, the beast holds the high level, the high spirit and the high quality of “The Seal Of Belial”. But of course Lord Belial didn’t stand still but developed their style further and optimized their way of expression. This time, every bombast like female vocals in the background or dismal keyboards which support the strings, had to leave. Guitars, guitar, guitars, in the most various way. Straight, destroying and gloomy riffs, fragile and total sad, grief-stricken clean parts, shrill leads and of course also some acoustic fills and intros which take the listener even deeper under the black ground and away to the misty horizon. 

 Midtempo is the order, waltzing midtempo, double-bass with impressive pressure, and a very present bass which lays the necessary base for the apocalyptical music. I even hear some influences from Doom Metal, but only in details, and the most important thing about Lord Belial is their ability to create an unmistakable sound and identity. Thomas on vox and guitar shows again pure hatred towards human live and spiritual weakness, his voice is a kind of aggressive and hysterical loud whispering. The sound is almost perfect (the whole work, including playing, mixing and mastering only lasted for 22 days in the Los Angered studio!), sometimes, the guitars could press a bit more, but this is a detail. But enough of theory, let’s come the the practice and let’s enter the abyss and have an accurate look at some of the hymns…

“Succubi Infernal”: The opener shows the route of “Nocturnal Beast” immediately: A catching, hateful chorus, roaring basses, great harmonies and a lot of midtempo. And a drowning atmosphere par excellence.

“Demonic Possession”: Infernal clean lead guitars let this hymn rise into the night, the powers of darkness take control, and a fantastic classic solo appears surprisingly.

“Desolate Passage”: Sad melodies and a feeling of loneliness takes the soul of the listener, and again: Midtempo-time. And again a fantastic solo, emotional, virtuous, but done with the heart, not with the head.

“Insufferable Rituals”: Hell what a melody during the chorus, and what an intensity in the vocals! On the other side, there are very fragile, beautiful clean guitars in the background for some time and the most harmonic guitarsolo.

“Indoctrination Of Human Sorrow”: The final highlight of “Nocturnal Beast. A real suicidal opus, with the best chorus on the album, the most thrilling melodies, the darkest atmosphere, the fastest blastbeats and the best lyrics: “Nothing is certain, but painful death…”. Oh how right Thomas is…

To close, I hope that every dark soul out there gets as possessed of “Nocturnal Beast” as I am…