Beholder are a proudly British and unashamedly Metal, with a capital “M” band that have been around a good few years now, and as well as a couple of line up changes, they have developed from a covers band with a reputation for putting on a show guaranteed to have the beer flowing and audience grinning, into a band that are producing cutting edge original music that fires up the intellect every bit as much as the most pit. ‘Reflections’ is the latest album in the evolution of the band, and a humdinger it is too.
From the opening blast of ‘Frozen Steps Of Utøya’, the lead track from the album, it is obvious that there is no shortage of anger in the Beholder camp, the track being their kick back against the murderous spree of the blandly grinning neo-Nazi stain on humanity that is Anders Breivik. The obvious contempt by band for his cowardly slaughter drips forth from the eloquent lyrics, whilst the furious riffs and blasting rhythm are a defiant clarion call to rally against all of his hateful kind. ‘I, Machine’ follows hard and heavy with some classic complex NWOBHM riffs leading into the venomously delivered vocals of Beholder’s gigantic front man Simon Hall, consumerist values and complicit religions getting equally peppered with a fusillade of the metallic shrapnel of the song. Don’t be worried though if the album is starting to sound like nothing more than a political polemic; even if you chose not to listen too hard to the lyrics, the power of the song is more than enough to compel any crowd worth their salt into a swirling pit of rage before the gentle acoustic closing bars bring a briefly lived calm.
‘Heal The Wounds’ follows on, the greater length of the track allowing the band to develop a more progressive sound, breakneck guitars giving way halfway through the song to a harmonised duel lead, providing the perfect vehicle to carry aloft the sustained clean vocals, the epic delivery bringing to mind Iced Earth at their bombastic best. At the moment the band is down from their normal two guitar line up so axeman Scott Taylor must be doing double duties in the studio pending a permanent addition to the band, and a stunning job he does too; whoever joins Beholder live for forthcoming shows will certainly have their work cut out for them, nowhere more so than on the complex guitar lines of the crushing ‘Host’ where a veritable wall of sound comes crashing out of the speakers. ‘Reflections’ is an unrelenting album, with power and ire blasting out of every track, with no slow down for a cock rock ballad or sing along tale of rock and roll excess on the road, so if you’re looking for an album to sit comfortably next to Steel Panther’s latest LP you are out of luck. For a sheer eloquent outburst against the injustices and inadequacies of modern life the closest I’ve heard in a good while would be the newly re-energised Prong, and some of those industrial hints can be heard in ‘Breathe In The Silence’ and ‘Killing Time’.
The anger of the albums continues unabated right to the end of closer ‘Speak To Me’, and fortunately for my tastes the vocals remain strong and clean. I personally find there to be no point in writing angst ridden lyrics that are then delivered by assorted “insert sub genre prefix here – core” bands in an indecipherable scream whilst bent over the mike pounding your chest towards the stage monitors, and whilst the aforementioned Mr Hall can growl with the best of them, this is used only as skilfully placed punctuation marks in the text.
Listening to the ten tracks of ‘Reflections’ must be like going ten round of alternatively boxing and playing chess; physically bruising and invigorating, whilst mentally stimulating. Well done sirs!
(8.5/10 Spenny)
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