Over the years, Athens has gave the world many things – it is cited as the birthplace of modern democracy, it was home to the great thinkers Plato and Aristotle and it is often referred to as the ‘cradle of civilization’ in Western Europe. In 2009 it gave us one more thing – Speedblow.
The 5-piece from Athens have recently played shows with stoner and groove rock bands such as Clutch and Truckfighters and have recently released their second album “Behold the Darkness” – a 45-minute long album with a traditional heavy metal feel to it with an undercurrent of stoner rock and doom-like grooves, aggressive metalcore styled vocals and melodic guitars and harmonies which wouldn’t seem out of place in the back catalogue of bands like Iron Maiden and In Flames. Lyrically it is dark, bringing themes of hopelessness, falling from grace, martyrdom, demons and death. The artwork by Vance Kelly helps re-affirm this theme also – a man in a helmet and minimalistic armour wielding a dagger and holding another unarmed man by the throat whilst letting out a battlecry.
“Behold the Darkness” starts off with an instrumental track – “Rise from the ashes”, which features intricate acoustic guitars layered over each other, gradually building to a conclusion with “Starting to heal”. The galloping rhythm, harsh vocals, pounding groove and melodic leads, cry out to the melodic death metal sounds of the mid-90’s with a heavier edge. “Beneath the shrine” starts out with a pounding doomy feel, slow riffs, heavily accented string bends and eerie sounding harmonies before the traditional metal gallop feel returns. An intricate clean-acoustic section slows the song down before the lead section and the captivating rhythm kicks back in once again.
“March of the Underworld” continues the underlying theme of the album – its pounding rhythm with furious riffs and harsh vocals which take the spotlight in this song with the venomous delivery. “Black Fire” sounds like it could have come straight out of any mid-90’s melodic death metal band’s back catalogue – its pedal-note riffing, fast-paced vocals and soaring leads and twin harmonies picks up the pace and lifts the mood slightly, making it one of the stand out tracks of this album. “Martyrs” brings a thrash-like feel to the album whilst still maintaining the stoner styled groove and traditional metal vibe with its twin-guitar assault and lyrics which keep up the theme of despair, hopelessness and death.
“Torches of Freedom” and “The Cleansing” which both follow keep this slightly thrash-like sound but put more of the melody and the groove back into the songs. The closing track “Mountains of Doom” lives up to its name. It towers above the rest of the album with its colossal riffs and stoner-doom groove which pounds away for the duration of the track, giving way to an epic guitar harmony section, powerful rhythms and an extravagant solo which leads into a haunting clean section much like the opening minute of the album, making it almost cyclic in nature.
It is a solid effort from the Greek outfit but the lack of vocal style variety holds it back in a way. The raw, harsh sounds shouted across the monstrous sound the band creates works well but it is the same across the entire album, there is little variety. Some parts, a growl or a clean would work better to highlight the music beneath it. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, just that it could be better in places.
If you like your metal heavy with a traditional vibe and don’t mind some healthy doses of stoner and doom styled grooves and melodic death metal style leads, then this album offers more than enough to satisfy your tastes. “Behold the Darkness” has plenty of big riffs, heavy grooves and headbang worthy moments to keep you going through this lyrically dark beast.
(7/10 Peter Thompson)
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