Total Annihilation of Leviatan Legions

Like Emperor's "Wrath of the Tyrant" meets Dark Funerals "Secrets of the Black Arts", Beeroth's first full-length album is somewhat of a headscratcher.

Much like the demo, "Himnos Ceremonia de Funebre", Beeroth focuses in intensely on a very-thin sound akin to being stung to death by a cloud of wasps. The guitars are almost unbearably-thin and staticky sounding, and there is no bass guitar to speak of from what I can tell. And yet, the riffing is surprisingly complex - no Darkthrone droning here.

Here is precisely what makes Beeroth a very strange listen though - the fact that this two-person band plays extremely raw and frantic black metal, but also adds out of place elements such as dramatic-sounding keyboards and operatic female vocals (take a listen to "Nuestra Es La Victoria" and "The Darkness By Always Will Die"). As a mixture, it shouldn't work, but it absolutely does.

Aside from the soft female vocals (which are well-sung - Adunamy obviously has some talent), vocalist Azmaveth spares no punches when it comes to the bloody screams on this disc, and the production here is RAW as hell, placing Beeroth amongst the more nasty-sounding legions within Christian black metal.

The more I listen to the disc, the more it grows on me. Unlike Hortor which plays more mid-paced black metal (even on their early material which has much more sonically in common with this), Beeroth pulls no punches and goes straight for the throat. Normally, the gothic keyboards would really take away from the aggression, but the shredding guitars and rank vocals more than make up for the more melodic elements in the music. This is extreme music after all, and I firmly believe that Beeroth does it right.

Overall, it's as I said an interesting mixture. Imagine early (demo-era) Emperor with more technical riffing and gothic female vocals here and there, add some early Dark Funeral-esque notes and warp-speed blasting, and I'd say you've got Beeroth's sound. It's an album that takes getting used to, but it's worth the trouble.