Enter the Moonlight Gate

From the moment you hit 'play', the album literally beckons you with the opening line: "Enter the Moonlight Gate!". From there you are pummeled with blisteringly fast power chords, ferocious blast beats and some of the harshest black metal shrieks your ears ever had the misfortune to be exposed to. I can really only liken the experience to being attacked by some beast in the wilderness. Speaking of which, they make really good use o voice distortion near the end of the song, which is set against the female vocals the is sung directly after that part. I know you’re probably thinking of writing this album off as some cheesy gothic-rock, because of that last statement - believe me they are used quite tastefully here. Anyways, back to the song: despite audio onslaught the opening track perpetuates, there is a constant underflow of melody (this is apparent throughout the remainder of the song). Only a few bands have ever pulled this off so cleanly: Dawn, Sacramentum\ (earlier works), and Dissection to name a few. This song continues on with a few more surprises - you hear some neat little hammer-ons being played (very uncommon in traditional black metal), a neat little section where a timing change occurs and the music slows down to accentuate the female vocals, and you even hear one of those typical death-metal-fuck-you-in-the-ears-with-my-whammy bar solo. Yes Belial has it all, as made apparent by the opening track. The rest of them are just as brilliant. Seriously, with an album like this I could just continue on to talk about every single track but that would just incite an excessively long review, instead I’ll just recap some of the highlights found here:

Lamia. Yes I know this is probably the one that people would consider the “anthem” off the album, but shit it’s for damned good reason. This album not only has some of the catchiest melodic lines heard in any metal song ever produced, but it also contains a diverse array of instrumentation. The track opens up with a grief-soaked violin line, flows into some dreary black metal lines - with the drumming at some point intensifying to some double-bass workout, and then flowing into almost folk style riffing overlaid with some really gentle flute playing (giving this track a really epic feel). Again, this track goes into a break, but this time it goes into some eerie riff using a diminished scale. The track continues with onward ferocity, and is capped off by some gentle acoustic playing. Again, an excellent display of dynamics.

Forlorn in Silence. With how this track is integrated, Lord Belial can be likened to many of the thrash bands of the 80’s (Metallica, Testament, Kreator etc.), in that they actually devote a whole track to an instrumental halfway through the album. This track is purely acoustic and is very folk sounding. Basically it’s two classical guitars playing a very complex, intertwining melody, and to be honest - it's too beautiful to accurately describe. At some point in this track these is whispered vocals which really drive the home mood of despair. Despite this being the softest track it is probably the most emotionally driven, as it seeks to provide introspection or at least a break from all the brutality. Nonetheless, the effect of having such a dramatic change really does increase the impact of this song.

Realm of a Thousand Burning Souls, Part I. Alright, the first glaring reason that I chose this track is well…because…It’s 20 minutes long! I could stop there, but really this track does merit so much more than then being 38% of the album. It’s absolutely brilliant. It opens up with some sort of black thrash riff (actually somewhat reminded of later Necrophobic by this one in particular), and then flowing into the volatile black metal ever-present in this album. It then goes into some gentle acoustic part with spoken/whispered parts. After that, it continues on with the same ferocity, but with more melody. Several minutes later, another break occurs. This one has some layered chanting vocals, and some dissonant acoustic lead played over the black metal riffs -lending a creepy feel to the track. This track continues on with some droning black metal (no I don’t mean the track is boring - it’s intentional). Further into the track, the female vocals appear again this time wailing in despair. At this point the vocals sound like a desperate cry. The part following soon after is probably the only weak point of the album: 5-6 minutes of silence. However, it ends in a cool way: tribal style drumming with faint chanting in the background. This part acts as an omen that Lord Belial will return to beat you senseless. This track pretty much sums up the brilliance of this album.

Overall this is a beast of an offering from LB. It’s a shame overall that this one was so overlooked. I guess at the time of the album’s release black metal was seemingly taking a more experimental route. Bands like Borknagar, Emperor, and Satyricon starting to make drastic changes in sound, and it seemed like LB was hanging on too closely the old ways for anyone to take notice. That probably was the cause of them switching to a more death metal oriented style later on (which was still good, but not classic like this).Even so, this album is one of those rare moments in music in which the overall strength of the album lies in craftsmanlike song construction, as opposed to strength being the band’s ability to experiment. This album tantalizes you with beautiful melody, ensnares you with its venom tipped hooks, and then drags you down with the weight of its melancholy. This is a masterpiece that truly needs to be heard by anyone who considers themselves a fan of the extreme metal genre.