Richard HolmesBeseech – My Darkness, Darkness (Despotz Records)
Genre: Gothic Metal/Rock
As the first Beseech album in 11 years, and one created by a revamped line-up, My Darkness, Darkness needed to offer something special… both to please their fans and to signal that the Swedes were back in business. Thankfully, then, this album is one of the finest slabs of musical melancholy you’ll hear all year.
Driven by founding member and frontman Klas Bohlin and featuring the lulling, angelic vocals of Angelina Sahlgren Söder, My Darkness, Darkness has a depth to it that’s drawn from real heartache, real life. The band are mature enough to let their pop sensibilities flourish (The Shimmering being a perfect example) and their songwriting has a beautiful simplicity to it, yet they are adventurous too – there are twangs of Americana in places, almost lending the opus the feel of a Goth western. And in One Last Call and Beating Pulse, the sextet show that they haven’t abandoned metal either.
Yet what really stands out are Bohlin and Söder’s performances, and when they intertwine on the glorious Mr Uninvited it seems like the pair were born to sing together. Atmosphere, too, shows just how dramatic their combination of vulnerability, loss and desolation can be.
If Beseech wanted a way back into the limelight, My Darkness, Darkness has lit up their path… it is an incredible achievement.
RUSHONROCK RATED: 9/10 Dark Times