Austria’s Belphegor might be considered one of the legends in
\nthe field of black metal, and from the looks and sounds of their
\n1995 major-label debut
\nThe Last Supper<\/i> they sure seem serious about the subject
\nmatter they’re writing about, I’m left with a sense of
\nd\u00e9j\u00e0 vu in regards to many aspects of this disc.<\/p>\n
Recently re-issued in America with a selection of tracks culled
\nfrom two independent releases earlier in the ’90s, I found myself
\nin an unenviable position of trying to figure out what ground they
\nwere breaking back then. It wasn’t the Satanic aspect; dozens upon
\ndozens of bands had capitalized on that by 1995. It wasn’t the
\nspeed-metal aspect. Indeed, this far removed from its debut, it’s
\nkind of hard to see the forest for the trees in regards to
\nBelphegor’s impact upon the music scene – kind of a “guess you had
\nto be there” approach, if you will.<\/p>\n
That said,
\nThe Last Supper<\/i> has some moments which demonstrate just why
\nthis group developed a strong following, as well as how much room
\nthe group had to grow musically.<\/p>\n
Memo to the band: if you’re going to do a cover of “Sabbath
\nBloody Sabbath,” how’s about keeping the music and the growled
\nlyrics somewhat close to what the original tune was, huh? There
\nwere times I had to wonder whether I was indeed listening to the
\nsame song as the title claimed I was. Ah, well – I guess that’s
\njust a personal preference, as all the die-hard fans of death metal
\n(and especially Belphegor) will remind me in the days and weeks to
\ncome.<\/p>\n
\nThe Last Supper<\/i> is not always the tightest musical ship
\nafloat in a genre which tends to have too many boats crowded into
\nthe same harbor. Yet there are times when one has to wonder why
\nthis group hasn’t become legends in the world of death metal.
\nTracks like “Bloodbath In Paradise,” “The Rapture Of Cremation” and
\n“A Funeral Without A Cry” all are wonderful examples of how
\npowerful and enjoyable this style of music can be – as well as how
\nintense things can get. Deciphering the vocals is a bit tricky, but
\none really doesn’t need to know what the lyrics are to understand
\nthat Belphegor isn’t singing about cake and flowers.<\/p>\n
If only the whole album was as strong; other tracks, such as
\n“Drowned In Excrements” and “Engulfed In Eternal Frost” just don’t
\nlive up to the same expectations. And while the inclusion of older
\ntracks is supposed to be an added bonus to the fans outside of
\nAustria who are now discovering this group, sometimes the different
\nstyles of music (occasionally the older tracks are a tad slower)
\ndoesn’t help the listener get a solid grasp on just who Belphegor
\nare as a band. For that matter, I don’t think they had come into
\ntheir own just yet – and I admit I still have to listen to the
\nreissue of
\nBlutsabbath<\/i> to get the full picture.<\/p>\n
In the end,
\nThe Last Supper<\/i> is an occasionally satisfying, if not a tad
\nconfusing, first glance at a band who are just now beginning to
\ncome into their own. Fans of the death metal genre will undoubtedly
\nlatch onto this disc as one of the Holy Grails of this musical
\nstyle. For the rest of us, it has its moments, but I’d dare say
\nthere are better discs to get one’s feet wet with.<\/p>\n
2002 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
\nreserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
\nwritten permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of
\nMercenary Musik \/ WWIII Records, and is used for informational
\npurposes only.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6695],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37305","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-belphegor","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37305\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37305"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37305"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}