Behold the Land of No Dawn

I heard this back in 2004 when I was searching for melodic Norwegian black metal after the phase I had of listening to bands like Emperor, Old Man's Child, Covenant, etc. Behold the Land of no Dawn is a very basic example of melodic black metal from a band I doubt most people will ever hear of. Despite being on a demo, the production is actually somewhat clean. The songs on this could have easily been pidgeon-holed on an Old Man's Child album because that's really what the music sounds like. The music is catchy and easy to listen to for most metal fans. Riffs are simplistic, with some aggresive drumming to make the music heavier, and keyboard synths to support the rest of the music. Like Old Man's Child, vocals are kind of a deeper grunting shriek and the keys do make enough presence that can't be avoided. The atmosphere is like being in a deep underground dungeon. The demo is fairly dark sounding, but it's nothing completely out of the ordinary. The King Without a Throne is probably the best track because of the cool, driving tempo throughout.

If you haven't heard much black metal, then Esgaroth is a great band to check out if you want a little taste of something obscure; however, after a few years of listening to more and more black metal, something like Behold the Land of no Dawn may not hold as much water as it did when first listening to them. It's by no means a bad release, especially for a demo, but there are some better bands to go for. Still, if Esgaroth ever decides to make more music (now under their new name), I think they do have some potential for greater things based on what's found here.