Band:	Beissert
Album:	Darkness: Devil: Death
Style:	Groove, Sludge metal
Release date:	March 2013

01. Thy Chthonic Cathedral
02. DarknessDevilDeath
03. Age Ov Darkness
04. Zorn Der Geister
05. My Path Shall Be Your Wrath
06. Perm Trias
07. I Am The Lore
08. Do What Thou Wilt
09. DXXXV
10. De Profundis Clamavi
11. Die Diamantenen Tore Der Hoelle (Polaris)

Beissert play easily stomachable groove metal with some death metal influences. It's the kind of stuff you could probably play for your older relatives without them plugging their ears and groaning about how real music died when Bob Dylan went electric (when he starting kicking ass) and Pavarotti started taking a sharpie to his face and about how growling isn't, gasp, singing. You could play this for them and have them force a smile and nod patronizingly in your direction, keeping their thoughts about how undiscerning you are with music to themselves. Beissert make easy to follow, inoffensive-sounding tunes.

Which is by no means a bad thing in itself, it's just, during a good chunk of this thing's time, it gets pretty bland. Tracks idle too frequently, tunes get overplayed, the melodrama gets coated on too much sometimes, etc., etc. The simplicity isn't backed up by quite enough substance here. There are a handful of solid moments on each track, but when this thing loses momentum, the riffing and song structuring lose their footing and slip around too much.

There are plenty of upsides on this though. The vocals are mostly excellent, with great off-and-on old school thrashy, harsh falsettos and some Warrel Dane-esque cleans thrown in, the riffing occasionally carves in some really solid grooves, and some of the soloing is cup-the-sky's-tits-in-an-epic-way amazing. What keeps it all together is the skill of the dudes in Beissert as musicians.

It's just a bit boring when listening from beginning to end. It has its share of brilliant moments, but as a whole, it's a little iffy.

Overall, it's good enough, you'll get your fun, but it's not a must-listen.


Stand-out tracks: "I Am The Lore," "De Profundis Clamavi," "Die Diamantenen Tore Der Hoelle (Polaris)"