Beliar (Pol)

Beliar - Arcana Imperii
Lower Silesian Stronghold, 2011
Genre: Black Metal

1. Introduction
2. Lord's Betrayal
3. 1410
4. Unholy
5. Imperium Superbia
6. Age of Sin










This is a new discovery on my part.  I saw that it featured ex-members of Moontower and since I quite liked Moontower I thought I would listen to a sample of their music.  I made it about thirty seconds into the sample before it solidified my decision to purchase this.  It was definitely worth getting my hands on this because the full package is quite well done.

Beliar play a type of Black Metal that I think just borders up against becoming Death Metal.  I think this is basically what Hate would sound like if Hate played almost straight Black Metal.  As you can see this is some vicious sounding stuff.  Despite the fact that I like the music quite a bit, it is still fairly standard form for this kind of Black Metal.  The guitar arrangements are very well composed and in tracks like "1410" they generate a spectacular atmosphere.  Some songs like, "Imperium Superbia" throw in some really killer thrashy sounding riffs that really hook the listener in.  The drum work is superbly arranged as I would expect from Moontower's ex-drummer (the only member of Beliar that was in Moontower mind you...)

The vocal performance is somewhere between the mid-range growls of Death Metal and the general Black Metal tone.  I would say they are most similar to what Thunderbolt performed on their last album "Apocalyptic Doom".  I think this vocal style really fits this music well, you could certainly get away with a decent high ranged screamer, but Sinister's vocals give a very powerful and brooding voice to this music.

I am really glad I purchased the CD, because the booklet has a really cool design.  It has a beautiful cover with very thick paper.  It features the lyrics and pictures of each band member.

Unfortunately this is really only an EP and I would like to see how this band would put a full length together.  However, this is a nice little teaser to get us started into Beliar's world.