BEHERIT — Engram (review)

Album · 2009 · Black Metal

3/5 · 2024-08-07
UMUR

"Engram" is the fourth full-length studo album by Finnish black metal act Beherit. The album was released through Spinefarm Records in April 2009. Beherit disbanded in 1996 so this is the first new material from them since the release of the dark ambient "Electric Doom Synthesis" album from 1996. Both "Electric Doom Synthesis" and the preceding 1994 "H418ov21.C" album were one-man projects and they were in a dark ambient music style with very few ties to Beherit´s black/death metal past and since founder and only remaining original member Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance (vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming) had worked with electronic music and as a DJ for many years since disbanding Beherit, it was anyone´s guess what "Engram" would sound like.

As it turns out Beherit have returned to a more pure black metal sound, although the grim, savage, and rather primitive black metal sound found on "Engram" is spiced up with some occasional gloomy atmospheric keyboards. Original Beherit drummer Sodomatic Slaughter has returned to the ranks, and the new quartet lineup is completed by the addition of Ancient Corpse Desekrator (guitars, backing vocals) and Abyss, Twisted Baptizer (bass, backing vocals). So although the music features programming, the programmed drums from the last couple of releases are gone with the return of Sodomatic Slaughter.

It´s a bit hard to compare the material on "Engram" with Beherit´s early 90s black/death metal releases, but if a comparison has to be made, it´s that "Engram" is every bit as relentless, savage, and repetitive in its expression as the early demo and EP recordings by Beherit. It´s only the occasional use of keyboards and the few times the band lower the pace and play more heavy riffs and rhythms (like they do on "Pagan Moon" and on the 15 minutes long album closer "Demon Advance") which point in the direction of Beherit´s dark atmospheric black/doom metal debut album "Drawing Down the Moon" (November 1993, Spinefarm Records).

"Engram" features a professional, raw, and aggressive sounding production job, which suits the material well. I´ll go as far as to say, that it´s the first Beherit release featuring a sound production which can be labelled professional. The previous releases all featured either lo-fi or downright weird sounding production values, but with "Engram" you finally get to hear what Beherit sound like when their music is packed in a professional production.

Upon conclusion "Engram" is a decent quality black metal release, but it´s not a release which screams that it´s Beherit who has made it. The relentlessly fast-paced tremolo riffing and blasting drumming are pretty generic features of this genre of black metal, the vocals are raw snarling and although pretty hateful and well performed (and occasionally complimented by some chanting clean vocals), they aren´t anything out of the ordinary for the style. It´s a good idea to lower the pace and play some heavy parts because that brings some variation to the album, and the occasional use of keyboards is also effectful, so a 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating isn´t all wrong.