“Revelry” is pretty bleak in a subdued kind of way, a post-black metal doom album with a subtly experimental bent and an expressive rock sensibility.
The album’s a little like a more metallic late-period Swans, but with glum trombone lines evoking a southern noir atmosphere when the grinding white noise of the guitars lets up. When the distortion quiets, the guitars relax into simple arpeggios and Espen Ingierd (aka Espen Weltschmertz) and backing vocalist Kate Havnevik are allowed to dominate the record with their morose, distressingly detached singing styles. The drums provide a plodding backbeat that has more in common with trip hop than Scandinavian metal, a rainy day dirge beat for the isolated sad bastard ambiance that permeates the music.
The album is bleak, but never oppressively so, content to linger on the edge of depression rather than drowning in it. Beyond Dawn was always a little too thoughtful for the histrionics of Katanonia and a little too expansive for the extremity of doom death. They always seemed destined to move beyond the limitations of genre, and so they did with 2003’s “Frysh.”
“Revelry” is easily the band’s best work from the more abrasive but creatively energetic pre-“Frysh” period.
-James Slone
VITALS:
Release: 1998
Label: Misanthropy
Avantgenre: Malaise Metal
Duration: 52:37
Origin: Norway
Official site: http://www.beyonddawn.com
Review online since: 29.09.2007 / 02:27:11
| TRACKLIST:
01 – Love’s (Only) True Defender |
Leave a Reply