Make way for Behölder!
Freshly signed to Black Lion Records, the band featuring John Yelland (vocals), Carlos Alvarez (guitar), Matt Hodsdon (guitar), Michael Sanchez (bass) and Andrew Julkowski (drums) unveil their new album, In the Temple of the Tyrant.
The band asserts its heavy but motivating Doom roots with touches of power metal on the very first track, A Pale Blood Sky, and the addition of the powerful vocals confirms that the mix is extremely effective. The track is relatively long but very rhythmic, letting a final unifying chorus lead us into Dungeon Crawl, which continues in the catchy tones while adding a touch of airy dissonance before offering a slower break that makes the reprise even more epic. We continue with Into the Underdark and its jerky, energetic passages that blend perfectly with the band’s ambience and its vindictive leads, then the band begins Eyes of the Deep, a fairly calm composition where they’ll be joined by Tomi Joutsen (Amorphis) who places a break in wilder saturated vocals. The solo leads into the finale, where the guest returns for an impressive duet, followed by For Those Who Fell, with its comforting veil of quietude, but with more martial parts where the vocalist shows off the intensity of his art. The sound becomes much more mysterious on Draconian (Slave or Master), with the bass very much in evidence, leaving the guitars free to place extremely melodious soaring harmonics, including on the choruses where the vocals become much more piercing. Summoned & Bound returns to more melancholic tones, but the band doesn’t forget its heaviness, once again using fairly simple but still solid riffs, notably on the solo. I Magus closes the album with the most aggressive mix on the album, creating a driving rhythm where the vocalist tells us his story, interspersed with sharp leads before the sound gradually fades out.
With In the Temple of the Tyrant, Behölder reveals a sound that’s very raw and heavy thanks to the Doom, but also extremely motivating with its Heavy/Power influences. Fans of Old School sounds will be in heaven, and I can’t wait to see it live myself!
90/100