Beseech – Sunless Days – Review

beseech200Beseech

Sunless Days (Napalm)
by Scott Hefflon

Beseech are such a class act, it’s really surprising they’re not on the tip of all dark rockers’ tongues. Fans of HIM and Lacuna Coil should already know these guys and gal, but, underground or not, fans STILL only follow what their friends like, the bigger names. Shame, cuz Napalm is pretty consistent about finding top-notch dark/Goth rock/metal, one tier in popularity but not quality below The Household Names. Everyone knows “that song” by Evanescence, and they sell like hotcakes. And we all know hotcakes are the basis of sales figures. So every other “kinda like Evanescence” band scrambles for table scraps, the underground being just as ill-informed as the mainstream, it seems.

beseechphotoAnyway, Beseech deserve your attention. Top-notch sobbing male vocals (no stubbed toe ogre yowl) matched by strong anthemic female vocals. No “find some generic angel to sing a few high notes” here, the female vocals are as important as the male vocals, and belted out like, I dunno, Lullacry? Heart? Drain STH? The guitars chug hard but melodically, so this might be too metal for Bella Morte or Cruxshadows fans, but Manson and Type O fans shouldn’t bat a coal-smudged eye. The keys tingle gently when needed, and they have the guitar’s back throughout. Delicate piano lines like In Flames and Dark Tranquillity, but with far different vocal styles, so it’s all good.

Song five is a great cover of Danzig’s “Devil’s Plaything.” Tasteful acoustic intro, pumped up deep-voiced verses, and the closest the band comes to vocal snarl during the chorus. The song, like Danzig himself, has always been cheesy, almost laughable, but solid enough (usually) to warrant only the occasional snicker. Sure, some of the lyrics on Sunless Days are a little embarrassing, torment of my soul and all that hogwash, but that’s kinda par for the dark course. Like 99% of song lyrics are really all that profound, ya know?

Beseech are from Sweden, they’ve been building it up over four previous albums so they aren’t newcomer teen sensations who have an accidental hit but no depth to back it up, and they don’t seem like preening rockstar ego-trippers.
(www.napalmrecords.com)