Lord Belial "Revelation" (Regain)
By Jeff Treppel
Wednesday. May 16, 10:50 AM
Totally evil, in a good way.

Lord Belial are clearly freaking evil. Just look at their name! I mean, Belial is a biblical spirit of evil personified, and these guys are the Lord of that. And the album title, Revelation, promises that they're going to reveal stuff, probably about how Satan is cool and God isn't. Those expecting tape hiss, blast beats, and high-pitched shrieking are going to be disappointed, though. Well, there are blast beats, but this isn't as kvlt as the name and album art imply. Instead, Revelation delivers 45 minutes of kick ass deathened black metal. That doesn't detract from Lord Belial's malevolence, but it does make them more accessible. Which is a good thing! Although still evil. So it's an evil good thing.

These guys are Swedish, so maybe their sense of melody comes from that. There's a big old dose of Gothenburg riffage mixed in with the black metal Blitzkrieg, putting them somewhere in between Amon Amarth and Dimmu Borgir. Some of the guitar solos even come close to soaring, or at the very least poking their heads out of the Stygian depths that the rest of the songs dwell in. On the whole, Lord Belial's midtempo assaults on the walls of Dis find the most success when they embrace those epic ambitions and go for broke. Then you get neat stuff like the Lovecraftian symphonics of "Ancient Splendor," the blast beat-drenched "Death as Solution," and Viking march of "Death Cult Era." When they don't, the results are still very listenable, but tend to blend together into a mass of iniquity.

The production is better than you'd expect, and the performances all respectable. Vocalist Dark (yes, that's really his name) utilizes his chords in a more varied way than you usually find, dabbling in growls, mournful howls, and even clean singing. Problem is, you can actually understand what he's saying. When they're in full-blown Satanic slaughter mode, the amateur demonology doesn't distract from the fun. But then you have the "Fade to Black"-quoting "Gateways to Oblivion," whose almost-prettiness gets undercut by the words about, well, gateways to oblivion. This being blackish metal and all, stupid lyrics are to be expected, but that doesn't make them any less, um, stupid.

Lord Belial do a good job concocting a tasty brew out of the same old infernal ingredients. That's all you can ask for, really. Good stuff. Or evil. Or both. Whatever.
www.lordbelial.com
www.regainrecords.com

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Jeff Treppel

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