In 1993 a black metal band from Helsinki, Finland released a then unappreciated but now cult classic album called Drawing Down The Moon. This bizarre album twisted the dark and brutal techniques of first-generation black metal bands like Blasphemy with hypnotically repetitive electronic soundscapes into what I can only describe as a fourty minute journey into the most primal elements of the unconscious mind. After this release the members of Beherit went on to explore electronic music, mostly abandoning black metal.
15 years later Beherit have returned to the dying art of black metal with the release of Engram. While it is reminiscent of Drawing Down The Moon in some ways, it is a very different release overall. The electronic influences come more in structure than instrumentation and aesthetic, although they certainly do make use of electronic sounds on most of the songs (usually in the form of keyboards but there is some other stuff in there too). At the heart of it this is easily one of the most straight-forward and well written black metal albums to come out in a long time.
Unlike their earlier works, which were composed in a mostly primitive style of crushing black metal, this album is filled with riffs that wouldn’t sound out of place on an early Bathory album, albeit with more of a modern feel. This certainly has an authenticity to it that “retro” bands lack; this is classic black metal made by guys that grew up listening to and playing this stuff. It’s this awareness of technique and feeling of passion and authenticity that make this album so good. The riffs are fairly simple, but unlike your neighbor’s myspace depressive black metal band they are extremely memorable and even catchy. The album itself has only 7 tracks and is just under 45 minutes, but its evident that a lot of work went into each individual track and it flows so well from the opening riff of the first track to the final breaths of the final, epic (really) and hypnotic track “Demon Advance”.
Song structure is also simple but very well done. In a time when most metal bands seem hellbent on filling a song with as many riffs/breakdowns/intervals/funny noises as possible but just can’t seem to make any of it interesting, Beherit knows how to change up their songs enough to keep things constantly exciting throughout the entire album while still making each individual song memorable and coherent.
If I wasn’t being clear enough with the review I’ll leave it at this. This album rules. Chances are it won’t sell too many copies because most people are too busy downloading Death Magnetic or some other uninspired and soon to be forgotten metal album, but if you are going to buy one metal album this year, even if you’re not particularly into black metal, it should be Engram. People who like metal that is straightforward and near to perfection will love it.
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