Released on: 23rd March 2018
Black metal is dead, long live Emo! Antlers second album is emo feeding off the veins of nostalgia and for an album that’s supposedly going to drown me “in the void of loss, love and hate and at the same time bring me out of the deep black waters to the healing surface and above” I feel strangely apathetic. Yet at the same time. At. The. Same. Time. I feel cured by the relentless beating of the drum tracks; This isn’t really black metal; It’s non-stick Teflon in a greasy pan.
Beneath. Below. Behold. does have its merits. The sound comes from the right sort of tin and the musicianship is damn fine. The band sound great and the vocals are rough, ready and reminiscent of early Behemoth. What fails to cause this album to be an inferno is the riffs.
You probably know this already but metal and riffs go together like the woods and trees, like corpse paint and dairy cows, like anything to a really strong adhesive. However these riffs are too often entirely anti-climatic and for anyone familiar with the genre dull and predictable. The excitement of black metal lost in a sea of, not really depressive but maybe mildly upset, tremolo.
Although it’s uninspired Beneath. Below. Behold. isn’t a technically bad album. Don’t expect any forest poetry however because this is ultimately made in the image of reverence to a genre that’s being reanimated by Fanboys and it will probably be of interest to the same type of kid who thinks Lords of Chaos is going to be an insight into the world of true Norwegian fry-up recipes. Roast me a ritter however; I’ll be back for Easter.
6/10
