Bethzaida

Anata vs. Bethzaida - War Vol. II
Season of Mist, 1999
Genre: Black/Death Metal

Anata:
1. Let Me Become Your Fallen Messiah
2. With Me You Shall Fall
3. Day of Suffering (Morbid Angel Cover)
4. The Tranquility of My Last Breath (Bethzaida Cover)
Bethzaida:
5. Last Days of Sodoma
6. Expulsion
7. Epistel Nr. 30: Drick Ur Ditt Glas (Swedish Traditional)
8. Under Azure Skies (Anata Cover)




Side Anata here

Side Bethzaida:

This is the second installment of Season of Mist’s War Volume series where two bands face off against each other.  With the success of the first one, which was …And Oceans vs. Bloodthorn they decided to put another volume together.  This one features Anata and Bethzaida, two very good bands in my opinion, especially after listening to this.

This is the second piece of music I’ve heard from Bethzaida and the prior album was sort of a Death Metal type of album with some touches of melodic Black Metal for good measure.  The new tracks on here seem to lean more towards an ominous sounding Black Metal piece with touches of Death Metal thrown in.  However, they mix it up with some interesting flute passages that mirror the guitar melodies.  So making the whole of the songs a much more interesting listen overall, especially since they put together a lot of elements that I never hear blended together.  Such as in the first song the flute not only pursues the guitar melodies, but has sections that could be considered lead parts.  It gives the songs a much more folk feel to them, and blended with a Death Metal guitar riff behind the flute makes for an interesting listen indeed.  Bethzaida is a band I more than recommend to anyone since they always seem to be producing something interesting and different.  While they never do any compositions that are excessively complicated they always manage to put together a very interesting arrangement in their songs so it keeps you interested, especially for those of us who enjoy music that is ever changing. Most of Bethzaida’s work on here is not speed intensive, but more somber and sorrowful sounding, which makes for an interesting blend since they got teamed up with Anata.  

The War Volume series is obviously a great idea on behalf of the record label Seasons of Mist since it introduces you to the bands on their label as well as gives you new tracks from bands you may already enjoy.  I think this is yet another very successful installment, since from my point of view I probably would have never gotten this if I had never heard Bethzaida before, so in the end I was exposed to Anata, which turned out to be a more than excellent band.  Obviously this is something to be checked out.