Beneath – The Barren Throne (Review)

Beneath are from Iceland and this is their second album of Brutal/Technical Death Metal.

Uncompromising and vicious; Beneath play their Death Metal like it’s the end of the world. The devastation shown on their album cover is perfectly replicated by their music which takes no prisoners at all.

It’s unsubtle and crushing but the band do make room for a few nuanced riffs in amongst the chaos. They use darkened melodies to enhance the tracks and play some good solos/leads when they’re not hammering the Hell out of their instruments. Brutal it may be, but the odd flashes of melody and intrigue show that the band are willing to raise their game and be more than just brutal for brutal’s sake.

Inventive riffs create an atmosphere of technical turmoil and the band are in full control of the disarray they are sowing and the carnage they have unleashed. Beneath have an intuitive grasp of dynamics and the songs on this album have a good deal of variety, pace and ideas for an album of this genre. Just look at a song like Sky Burial – almost 8 minutes of pure class.

The sound is sharp and tight, as are the band themselves who all put in a stellar performance.

This is the type of deeply satisfying Death Metal that you can feel all the way down to your marrow. It connects in ways that other styles of music just don’t.

The Barren Throne awaits…