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Bellator - Iridescence review



Reviewer:
6.5

1 user:
8
Band: Bellator
Album: Iridescence
Release date: 2002


01. The Journey's Onset
02. Deadlocked
03. Myriad Gateways
04. The Pular Voyage
05. Ghost Ride
06. Prelude To Austerity
07. Vaults Of The infinite
08. In Spectra

I had this one for a long time now, and I listened to it several times, but I just couldn't find out what to say about it, is a strange piece of work, I would classify this as Death/Doom Metal, but it has many, many elements that defy any classification.

It starts with a spoken intro about the second war in heaven, taken from a movie that I can remember the name now, anyway, after the short intro starts "The Journey's Onset", the first thing that I noticed is that the clean vocals are very nice, although you can notice the Belgium accent in every phrase. The Death vocals are very typical thick, low grunts.

Second track "Deadlocked" is where you can enjoy the clean vocals the most [despite the accent], "Myriad Gateways" is your typical Death/Doom song until some weird keyboards appear at the middle of this one, enjoyable, but weird. The 13 minute epic "Ghost Ride" also features this kind of experimentation on keyboards.

The production lacks depth and the mix is not perfect either [it was done on a PC by one of the members], many of you might be thinking right now "but this a self-released CD", yeah, I know, and I also understand that some bands don't have the money to release big productions, but I also have to look at the scene too, day by day more unsigned bands are releasing top-notch works, so, if you want to be noticed by labels, you got to put your best effort in your demos.

So, if you're fan of Death/Doom Metal, and you have to own ALL the releases in the genre, get this one, if not, I'll recommend to wait until this guys are signed. I hope that they get signed because they show talent here, but they need some direction.

Written by Undercraft | 29.09.2003





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