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October 12, 2008 |
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01. Innerlane
02. The Outpost
03. A Bittersweet Tragedy
04. Everytime I Die
05. Devil's Plaything
06. Lost
07. Last Obsession
08. Emotional Decay
09. Restless Dreams
10. The Reversed Mind (Outro)
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Hailing from Sweden of all places (a country more often associated with Death, Black, or Viking Metal), BESEECH are one of the higher-profile acts currently representing the burdgeoning Scandinavian Goth Metal scene (alongside others such as DRACONIAN, LEAVES' EYES, THEATRE OF TRAGEDY, and HIM to name but a few)."So why haven't I heard of them?" you ask. Well, probably because despite the fact that BESEECH (who by the way include Lotta Höglin/vox, Erik Molarin/vox, Mikael Back/keys, Daniel Elofsson/bass, Robert Vintervind/guitar, Jonas Strömberg/drums, and Manne Bergström/guitar) demand a fairly respectable cult following within their chosen subgenre, the fact remains that their subgenre isn't exactly making major waves on the charts these days (well except for the recent breakout success of HIM that is). Nevertheless, suffice to say that these guys have been around for a few years now and have been doing quite well to boot.
With latest release "Sunless Days" it's time once again to see what these Swedish merchants of mourn have to offer our bruised and battered Metal ears.
Stylistically speaking, I have to be brutally honest: BESEECH aren't a whole heck of a lot different from the majority of their aforementioned peers. I mean, this is Goth Metal after all...or more aptly, "Romantic Doom", which is basically a pretty predictable, very formulaic musical form of piano-driven melancholic melody with heavy guitar riffs lain o'ertop, all serving as a black velvet sonic backdrop for the usual duelling "clean" female/"brutal-and/or-sinister"-Peter-Steele-worshipping male vocals. Again...nothing we haven't heard already on pretty much any album from, oh...I don't know...DRACONIAN, LEAVES' EYES, THEATRE OF TRAGEDY, or HIM. Get my point here, hombres? Don't expect any kind of paradigm-shifting musical experience here because it just doesn't exist. That said though, "Sunless Days" is still a more than passable collection of songs. It's about what you'd expect from an act of this sort worth their salt.
And ultimately that's always been my problem with the whole Goth Metal scene. It's all so stylistically derivative and incestuous that frankly I find it hard to differentiate between the majority of the acts currently peddling it on the streets. In the case of BESEECH who - to be fair here - are all accomplished players who have managed to craft a more than competent piece of work on "Sunless Days", I find that the music on offer, while decent within its particular framework barely even qualifies as Metal in the first place. So much of what's going on here is more akin to a slightly darker, riffier take on bouncy SISTERS OF MERCY or "love"-era CULT material merged with THEATRE OF TRAGEDY or "October Rust"-era TYPE O NEGATIVE that I have a hard time seeing how they are consistently lumped in with the wider Metal scene to any degree in the first place. This is pure, unadulterated Goth/Darkwave to my ears. Nothing more; nothing less.
The fact that there are a few heavy guitar refrains and a fairly decent cover of DANZIG's "Devil's Plaything" doesn't change that view either. This is all about clove cigarettes and bad absinthe trips while sitting in an ornately carved wooden chair in a smoky club basement. Not denim, leather, bulletbelts, beer, and headbanging in wild abandon.
I don't mean to knock this band either. They do what they do quite well. As Goth goes this is all very well and good. The problem for me is that, as already stated, the inherent weakness of the subgenre raises its inevitable head in the form of a frankly quite faceless and anonymous sonic aftertaste which inspires little beyond casual indifference. Perhaps it's the tiringly melancholic dreariness of it all. Perhaps the formulaic and heard-it-all-before song structures and melodies. Perhaps it's the almost nonexistence of meaty riffage. Perhaps it's the fact that none of this is my preferred cup of lover's blood. Who knows? Either way, despite a golf-clap-worthy nod to the technical prowess of the players involved I fear that this is one aural entity which won't be getting much in the way of repeat-plays from this tankard-hoisting punter.
But if you are a Goth and live and die by this sort of forlorn, weepy ear-fodder, then by all means seek out and spin as it is more than likely right up your fog-enshrouded, gaslit 19th century London alley. I however, to paraphrase Robert E. Howard (RIP) prefer the clean, lean fierceness of the wastelands.
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