For some bands, nastiness is the name of the game. We’ve all seen plenty of examples when it comes to bands striving for deeper depths of depravity the likes of which feels all-engrossing for what they bring to the table and dare to embody in terms of unsettling the listener and channeling something beyond this earth that likely should not be communed with. There are many ways to channel an unsettling nature into your metal, and death-doom has long been a tried-and-true formula for delivering such menace with bands still cropping up out of nothingness to try their hand at doing so. With their first album, Besotten dares to throw its hang into the ring of such stiff competition.
In order to achieve a sound that’s nasty and riddled with slime in a way that the listener can feel it in every inch of your creation, you need to know how to commands your heaviness in such a way that has real weight, presence, and atmosphere in such a combination that feels downright undeniable every time the listener is thrown into such madness. Doom metal has long been a bastion for such an approach with the slower pace allowing for many bands to work darkly intoxicating magic. However, it’s in striving to do more and remaining utterly meticulous in its attention to detail that Besotten enables their forthcoming effort of undeath, “Eye of the Monolithicrypt”, to become far more than what might initially meet the eye. A profoundly thick and abhorrent creation that’s riddled with riffs and dripping with compelling atmosphere, the sheer magnitude of this performance is something that is to be studied for what it accomplishes across its 36-minute runtime. A sublime and devilish blend of doom and death metal that does its influences more than enough justice, Besotten sets the bar quite high as the doors to the tombs fling wide open and troves of walking corpses stride forth to cover the world in an impenetrable layer of darkness that’s sure to last for eons given the potency with which Besotten commands masterfully.
This is death-doom unafraid to challenge its listener to something diabolical. Where the bounds of sanity might prevent one from pressing forward, it’s throughout “Eye of the Monolithcrypt” that Besotten barrels forward in an endless search for depravity heretofore untold of. Death-doom has long had a reputation of achieving greatness in many forms, and it’s here that Besotten only furthers that glorious tradition.
“Eye of the Monolithicrypt” releases on November 6th via Transcending Obscurity Records!
LISTEN to advanced tracks from “Eye of the Monolithicrypt” on Bandcamp here.
FOLLOW Besotten on Instagram here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrJfGzp_K1s