Beecher "This Elegy, His Autopsy" (Earache)
By Kenny Irwin
Thursday. Sep 29, 12:01 AM
Tech metal with a broad scope.

Yes, it’s true that tech metal has spread even to jolly old England. Beecher are some fast acting Brits with nothing but destruction on their minds, I tell ya! A crazy mix of hurried technical metal with crushing hardcore breakdowns, Beecher sound a lot like Between The Buried And Me, Converge, and The Dillinger Escape Plan with some random slow, drawn out parts that look to Fantômas for influence.

The cover of This Elegy, His Autopsy looks like it may be some sort of new psychedelic jam band, with its crazy assortment of colors and designs, but rest assured that, as soon as opener “It’s Good Weather For Black Leather” blasts through your speakers, it will scare the hippy shit right off ya. To give it that extra edge, that extra pouring of metal, Beecher had their second full length produced by Kurt Ballou (guitarist for Converge / amazing producer) at God City Studios (which is now in Salem, MA: props to Northshore!). Although relatively unknown, Beecher have been around since 2002 and have put out a number of different recordings including a 7”, an EP, and a full length in the summer of 2003 (Breaking the Fourth Wall, which was also recorded by Kurt Ballou and had its cover art done by Aaron Turner of Hydra Head / Isis). Beecher and Ballou did an amazing job on the production of this album. It’s tough to capture all of the different sounds that a band like this has, yet keep the flow going from song to song without being all over the place and possibly lose the listener.

The very first two tracks attack you with heavy pounding and fast riffs that don’t seem to wanna slow down at all. Vocalist Ed Godby shows his throat strength, going from short low bursts to long high shrieking screams, as well as really well done backing vocals that sometime are so distorted they sound as if he’s locked up in the basement screaming to get out! Don’t count on it, Ed! Apart from the chaotic, fast, all-over-the-place songs, Beecher go into these long, drawn out, heavy spacey / stoner type jams with very little vocals and use an assortment of guitar pedals / distortion noise to bring other elements of surprise that most people will not expect from a band like this. It’s nice to have these breaks in the album, so that there’s not just complete pounding fast riffs song after song. This is shown on “Not Guilty” and “The Biting Cold,” which go from a weird Fantômas-type heaviness to a lighter, almost Mogwai type of vibe: insane but brilliant! Then “And on the Day He Became a Human Plumb Line”(no idea what the hell that means) comes in like an emo-ish Thursday song, but strangely transforms into a rockier number with background vocals consisted of heavy British accent speaking and an ending of low screaming and crashing cymbals.

Don’t think that this band has forgotten about its brutal side, though, because right away on the next coupla tracks – “Psycho Galvanic Skin Response” and “I Won’t Miss or Be Missed”(great f’n title) – they play as fast as they can, with the guitars and snare and bass drum going a 100 miles an hour, going back and forth between thrash chaos and slower grooves. These guys are sick and tight as hell to match! “Man the Treno” is their punkish/hardcore entry, which is just as brutal and complex as the rest of the album. Beecher also go off into rants of noise and distortion samples, which is found on “Happiness”: it starts off all crazy and almost annoying, but then melds down into this really beautiful, in-and-out distortion. This is abruptly interrupted by the last song on the album, “Reach Up to the Gods,” which is a sick slow pounder that will have you headbanging in no time! The guitarists go off, with the vocals now having an electro sound accompanied by Ed’s deep low growls in the background. The guitarists go into another heavy riff as the screams come in, and as all these parts fade out, the guitars rise to a high pitch and stay there for a nice five-minute outro.

This transition from song to song shows how diverse this band is and how they, like many bands out there today, are destroying any type of genre / categorization placed upon them. In some ways, this must really get to a lot of music writers and critics because they can’t just call the band one type of rock and/or spit out easy comparisons, but on the other hand it opens up both the writer and listener’s minds and shows how you can enjoy a number of different styles that can come out of one band: if it’s done well. I seriously challenge you all to let your pre-judgmental ideas of what a “heavy” band sounds like and give This Elegy, His Autopsy a chance. You will not be disappointed!
www.beecher-online.com
www.earache.com

Kenny Irwin

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