Enter the Moonlight Gate

Many people consider this to be the best Lord Belial record, so I was quite surprised that reviews for this one were pretty hard to come by. Anyway, this is the first LB album I heard and it's damn good.

"Enter the Moonlight Gate" starts the album and it's quite brutal, at times closer to death metal than anything. But then some very good female vocals appear (sounding very much like Beseeches Lotta Höglin, but i doubt it's her, since she was probably too young when this was released) and some doomier parts appear here and there.

The whole album itself is quite brutal and very fast, dominated by blastbeats, lightning fast tremolo picking and screeching/growling vocals. Exceptions are "Forlorn in Silence", a fabulous acoustic piece with intricate licks and just an awesome overall atmosphere, "Path With Endless Horizons" and "Lamia" - both feature great melodic guitars and good female vocal additions.

Production is good, though it lacks a bit of bass presence and the drums tend to be a bit too loud. No major faults.

I heard that Lord Belial were slowing down and sacrificing a lot of heaviness with their more recent releases, which can't be good, since heaviness is one of the main essences in LBs music, but i might try them anyway.

Overall, "Enter the Moonlight Gate" is a very good album and there i something for every extreme metal fan to like. Sometimes, the (though mostly welcome) brutality does get in the way of the sparkling brilliance that appears mainly in the acoustic and melodic parts, but this album is still most definitely recommended.

Highlights: "Enter the Moonlight Gate", "Path With Endless Horizons", "Lamia" and "Forlorn in Silence"