BEGERITH: “A.D.A.M.”

(TheMadIsraeli wrote this review of the new album by Begerith, which was released on January 7.)

Sometimes we really are just born in the wrong place. Life really is just a matter of random chance and circumstance. Sometimes we’re born out of time, out of place, our identity isn’t consistent with what surrounds us, and we were always destined to be that eyesore. Begerith seem to have been so convinced of that wrongness that they literally relocated to the country that hosts the sound they identified with. Russian natives, they fled to the majesty of Poland, so they too could build their own ramparts on an imperial mobile sonic fortress that knows no equal.

Begerith are 100% consummate scholars of the Polish deathly metallic arts despite their Russian roots. If you love the scathing, bleak imperial might of Behemoth, Hate, or Vader you will be right at home here. A.D.A.M. is an impressive record, both in its dedication to what it wishes to be and also because it’s really fucking good.

As Behemoth and Hate did before them, they cut out their own unique take on the style (introducing some doomier tendencies and some ‘90s black metal keyboard work) to create an album that is every bit equal to their legendary muses. Like the music of those bands, though, this is all about whether you love the principal sound at work rather than search for diversity across an album, because in Polish tradition, Begerith are insanely consistent. Every song is a hellish nightmare of sinister blackened tremolo melodies, meaty mammoth riffs, and unrelenting war drums.

I also really like the enigmatic mood the band are going for here. The band members have no names, they are simply Begerith 1-4. The album’s songs, except for the instrumental intro, are just “A.D.A.M” I to X. Roman numerals are fucking metal after all. This could be interpreted as an attempt to further reinforce the idea of the musical oneness and focus at work here.

Few things are better in metal than an album where the band are obviously passionate about what they are doing, even if it’s what we might term “meat and potatoes”, and when they execute with skill. Begerith obviously love what they’re doing, and it results in a truly top-tier death metal record for early 2017.

Stream below. Listen to it. It’s great.

A.D.A.M. was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Hertz Studio in Bialystok, Poland, by Wojtek and Slawek Wieslawski. The cover art was created by the distinctive Denis Forkas Kostromitin, with layout by Metastazis. It’s available on Bandcamp.

https://begerith.bandcamp.com/album/a-d-a-m
https://www.facebook.com/Begerith/