ENGRAM

It's been 13 years since the last Beherit album (1995's Electric Doom Synthesis) but it has been fifteen years since the release of the last full-on black metal release from the band.

Reforming last year, and now a four piece, Beherit have now released their latest album ENGRAM and.....

it's true black metal in the vein of Drawing Down the Moon but maybe a bit less raw, less necro, maybe even a bit more modern sounding.

Holocausto still has that mad, fucked up vocal style that always set Beherit apart from a lot of other bands*, and there are enough traces of the two dark ambient style albums in here to make this sound unique compared to a lot of the recent BM releases (eg Orcustus etc).

It's still unholy, grim black metal, but it's a different head of the same beast.
It's powerful, relentless and even when it does slow down, there is enough atmosphere to creep you right out. Beherit are as crucial today as they were in 1991.

Link: Beherit @ Spinefarm

*I always wondered why, when all manner of chancers were content to plagiarise Transylvanian Hunger over and over again that nobody ever tried to rip off the vocal styles of Holocausto or Atilla Csihar.

I still wonder why now, because they're two of my favourite vocalists in BM.