Beyrevra – Echoes: Vanished Lore Of Fire
Beyrevra – Echoes: Vanished Lore Of Fire
Trollzorn Records
Release Date: 29/02/24
Running Time: 53:07
Review by Oli Gonzalez
8/10
Beyrevra. A feared demon in Hinduism. Or in this case, a Melodic Blackened Death Metal act from Germany. An unknown for me, but one I was eager to get my hands on and explore further, given the thunderous sound that emanates from their discography. Now on the eve of their new album “Echoes: Vanished Lore Of Fire”, it’s time for further examination of the soon to be latest addition to this discography.
First up is ‘Sentenced’. A harrowing cry of the ravens cry opens the album, followed by the spine chilling chants of Gregorian monks. Very austere and cinematic, my curiosity peaked. Rather simple but effective punchy riffs are the order of the day, with that traditional Black Metal flavour. Vocally, we see an elegant fusion of high pitch KVLT style shrieks with some earth shaking gutturals. Gnarly! I’m definitely picking up on that Scandinavian inspired Melodic Death Metal groove, much in the style of Insomnium or Wolfheart. This momentum continues over to ‘Path Of Baptism’ which feels more like a Thrashy number. This is apparent in the opening segment, with the bass and drums shining brighter in the mix and laying down a rock solid foundation for the guitars and vocals to take their roles as melodic centrepiece.
The austere church bells and monk chants return in the opening to ‘Burning Fate’. I find this interesting, almost as if it’s continuing a narrative. If the Melodic Death Metal inspiration was more prevalent in the previous song, it’s impossible to ignore here… and it’s absolutely glorious! Beyrevra, take a bow; you’re already winning me over here! Despite some of the riffs being simple in parts, I still sense a subtle complexity in the structure of the songs. The pacing being in segments is excellent as we move from the balls to the wall Black Metal ferocity to some good old fashioned neck snapping grooves and breakdowns that frankly will never go out of fashion. Speaking of segments and movements, the pace slows down to a glacial drip roughly 2 minutes into ‘New Aeon Rising’. Here, the keyboards and synths go from lurking in the background to being the melodic focus. What we have is yet another simple yet brutally effective spine chilling grand piano exert. When combined with the piercing and blazing lead guitars, this makes for a Melodic Death Metal masterclass that demands to be listened to repeatedly. Just like I did! Very much the same can be said for ‘Erased’, where the vocals largely take a back seat and allow the blazing lead guitar riffs to dominate the mix. When they’re that good though, they should be allowed to!
It feels as though I’m back in church as the bells strike again in the opening to ‘Fallen Son’. This is short lived though, as the intensity soon increases. I want to see this song played live, just to witness the sheer carnage that this Thrash inspired pace and ferocity would cause in the pit! Though I’m quite happy to sit in the safety of my own home and admire this work of art from a safe distance.
Then it turns to the longest song of the album, ‘Beheading The Truth’, coming in at just over 7 minutes. As much as I’ve admired the album up until now, this is where the momentum begins to slow. The first 5 minutes or so is honestly very similar to what we’ve heard in the previous songs. Don’t get me wrong, in isolation it’s phenomenal. After over 30 minutes though, it is a bit more difficult to sustain your attention if you’re being offered the same product. Especially in this era with the ever decreasing attention span. They seem to have the right idea, slowing the pace right back down at roughly the 5 minute mark and providing much needed respite. What can be said for this song can also be said for ‘The Hermit’s Truth’, which illustrates the issue of things becoming a little stale and repetitive. Which is a shame, as the album started off so strong.
With this being said, “Echoes: Vanished Lore Of Fire” is a good album. What’s stopping it being a very good or excellent album? Or rather, how can Beyrevra’s next album be at this higher standard? Stick to the solid Melo-Death foundations here, for sure. That’s going to be crucial in the future. I alluded to some of the more cinematic openings for some of the songs, including ‘Sentenced’ which also featured a voice over. This is a fantastic opportunity to begin telling a narrative for a concept album, something I’d love to see Beyrevra build on in the future. If they wanted to go down this direction. The production felt like it needed some refinement to bring out the very best in what is clearly a talented group of individual musicians. Something certainly fixable. Finally, I’ve made multiple comparisons to Insomnium here. I’d advise Beyrevra to not copy them but take a leaf out of their book; simply make the albums shorter. The Finnish heavyweights released “Anno 1696’ in early 2023, an 8 song Melodic Death masterpiece that left me chomping at the mouth and wanting more! I wanted more, and got more in autumn that year, when they released “Songs Of The Dusk”. A much shorter 3 track EP. This made their music much easier to consume and is staying with the modern times in many ways.
This is a very long winded way of saying make the album a bit shorter and do more smaller releases, so as to not burn out your audience, because Beyrevra clearly have the product to wow many and organically attract fans to their brand. It’s a case of how to present that.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Sentenced
02. Path of Baptism
03. Burning Fate
04. New Aeon Rising
05. Erased
06. Fallen Son
07. Beheading the Truth
08. Barren Tales
09. The Hermit’s Torment
LINE-UP:
M.S – Guitars, Compositions
M.D – Vocals, Keyboards, Lyrics
S.L – Bass
D.B – Drums
LINKS:
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