The Ancient Ritual of Death

If death/doom is at its heart about mourning, Beast of Revelation are dealing with the kind of grief that leads to madness. It is the anguish of being left to die in a crevasse, or of bleeding out from a mortal wound at the fringes of the battlefield, screaming and raging at the horrifying brevity of the life that’s left to you. There’s nothing pretty here. No head hung in sepia-toned depression. No comforting oblivion or morphemic haze. No redemptive suffering. Just bleak, dark, doom.

Much of this atmosphere is brought on by McEntee’s vocal performance. His subsonic, guttural murmurs dominate each moment they appear in (and there’s some absolutely crushing yowls to be found on a few tracks, one in particular on “The Fallen Ones”). His is by far the standout performance. The guitars and bass are solid, with subterranean tuning and murky tone. The production on the record contributes the space you’d expect from a cavernous death record -- no surprise, perhaps, given the lineup. And musically, there’s a good smattering of mournful melodies in the vein of Hooded Menace, paired alongside plenty of down-tuned doom riffing. All combined, it’s a strong aesthetic and it works.

Unfortunately, the songwriting leaves this release wanting. On initial listens, I kept waiting for a blast beat or some other uptick in speed that never came. The tempo is a consistent midrange slog from song to song. It’s almost too consistent, and the songs have bled together in my mind. Some of the tracks -- particularly “The Great Tribulation” and “The Fallen Ones” -- have enough going for them in the way of heavy, chugging riffage and dark melodic lines to make for awesome repeated listening. Unfortunately, a lot of the other songs are built around one or two riffs that don’t really go anywhere. That’s fine for the instrumental outro, but it makes for several forgettable, skippable tracks in this album’s length.

This is a shame, given the potential of the lineup. Perhaps McEntee’s vocals are just too brutal for death/doom and that leads to uneven listening. Perhaps these guys have nothing to prove (their chops are unimpeachable) and made a record for the hell of it. Whatever the case, I'm sad to say this ancient ritual got old fast.