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BESEECH :
SOULS HIGHWAY

Beseech is yet another band in the increasing crowded Goth Metal genre that employs both male and female lead vocals. But somehow, the band manages to carve out their own sound, without cloning those that dominate the upper echelon of the scene. Although new to many, the band has been around since 1992. The band was formed in Boras (near Gothenburg), Sweden, and has put out 2 previous efforts, 1998's "...from a bleeding heart" and 2000's "Black Emotions". Turning to the music, the main draw for this outfit, are the vocals. The female vocals (Lotta Höglin) are not your average Goth Metal Female Operatic thing, but more in the vain of The Gathering's Anneke Van Giersbergen. The male vocals (Erik Molarin) also depart from the Goth Metal norm, one would usually expect a harsh male Death Metal influenced voice to offset the angelic female tones, but instead we get a deep, clean voice almost like Cemetary's Mathias Loadmalm. The songs themselves are very effective, full of deep rhythms and dark imagery, that'll make you want to cover your walls in red velvet and dim the lights. A truly superior effort, fans of everything from Type-O-Negative to Tristania will want to grab this. For more info, check out http://www.beseech.net.
RATING = 8 Goth-Metal (Released 2002)

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BESEECH :
SUNLESS DAYS

Well, Goth-Metal underdogs Beseech are back, following up on 2004's "Drama", which unfortunately, I never got around to picking up. Not that I didn't want to, it was just a combination of a lack of funds, and a general laziness on my part. Anyway, this is album number five for the crew, and finds the band feeling pretty comfortable in their sound. As stated above in my review of their 2002 effort, the band still follows the basic blueprints of the genre, laid down by their forefathers, but are still managing to maintain their own uniqueness. That being said, I'm not as taken with "Sunless Days" as I was with "Souls Highway" (or their debut for that matter). When looking at individual elements, vocals, playing, production, everything is still solid, but the songs, while enjoyable, just don't seem to have any staying power. They just don't wanna stick to the ol' ribs, even after over a half dozen spins. The best track on the disc is the band's cover of the Danzig classic "Devil's Plaything". Now, I've always said it would be cool if a Goth band covered something from Evil Elvis's back catalogue and gothed it up, and thankfully, Beseech has proven that theory true. Still, one cover tune does not an album make... This is a weird one my friends, even grading it is weird. Did I enjoy listening to it? Yes. Can I remember anything other than the Danzig track? Not really, so I'd have to say this is just average at best.
RATING = 6 Goth-Metal (Released 2005)

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