Besna - Krásno review
Band: | Besna |
Album: | Krásno |
Style: | Black metal, Post-metal |
Release date: | January 16, 2025 |
A review by: | RaduP |
01. Zmráka Sa
02. Krásno [feat. Jakub Tirco]
03. Hranice
04. Oceán Prachu
05. Bezhviezdna Obloha
06. Paracelsus
07. Mesto Spí [feat. Solipsism]
Can you spare 30 minutes of your time for some of the most beautiful melodies you'll hear in post-black metal?
First things first, let's see who we're dealing with. Besna is a Slovakian four-piece that has been at it since 2018. The lineup has been very stable since, with the only lineup change being the band changing drummer since the last album, 2022's Zverstvá. Speaking of Zverstvá, it being the band's full length debut, and my introduction to the band, it stood out for how it used the band's post-black metal sound to present something that seemed tied to nature and Slovakian cultural history, evidenced by the folky cover art and the Slovak lyrics. Though, with the language barrier and the lack of actual folky elements in the music itself, the result was an emphasis on this extremely melodic black metal sound, one that continues with the band's follow-up.
There is a bit of a thematic change this time around, with Krásno being simultaneously more introspective in its inwards focus, but also having an outward focus that is more tied to recent events and less on a folky natural sense of culture and history. Even with the lyrics being in Slovak being a language barrier when listening to it, the band does offer translations, as well as a run down of the album's themes on the album's Bandcamp page, managing to feel like the musings of how society and living through history affects the individual on a personal level, and nature on a environmental level. Even without diving into the lyrics, there's something about Besna and Krásno specifically that is really emotionally resonant, and a lot of the elements work towards creating this feeling between despair and hope.
On a basic level, Besna play post-black metal, but also the vocals feel so anguished and passionate in a way that borders on post-hardcore, the riffing has some intricacies that take from progressive metal, and most importantly the melodies within the post part feel so vibrant and triumphant that they feel closer to something like blackgaze, and herein comes the "hope" part of the emotional spectrum that I mentioned. Yes, the year has just started and I haven't listened to that many metal albums so far, but Krásno, in its short 30 minutes runtime, managed to pack most of the melodies that have been stuck in my head from this year, and even on the second listen I felt strong familiarity with the melodies.
A lot of music thrives on the contrast between harsh and mellow, light and dark, melodic and rough, and Krásno makes the most of how beautiful its melodies can sound alongside the pits of despair.
![]() | Written on 27.01.2025 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out. |
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