The kids are going to be alright! It warms my near glacial old man heart to hear a younger generation of bands write such technically sound and no-nonsense death metal. Begravement is the type of band I wish I got to grow up around, instead of the lackluster deathcore scene that was taking over my small area of Maine as a teenager (no disrespect to any of the bands; they were all incredibly talented, just wasn't my scene, but you support your friends and their bands!). This band has something for metal fans of any age; I see them being an amazing gateway band for younger kids to get into Death Metal as well as the old guard who might need something new.
Begravement hails from Saint Paul, Minnesota, which is a 21-hour drive from Tampa, Florida, but given the way "Horrific Illusion Beckon" plays, you would think they grew up in the Florida swamps with a boombox playing Death, Vader, and Atheist records at full blast while living out this cosmic horror story the album plays out. I have listened to this record a few times now, and it only gets better with each listen. At just under an hour of blistering blast beats and bass fills, with some incredible clean and acoustic sections, symphonic keyboards, this album truly never overstays its welcome. Being a lifelong horror and sci-fi fan, this album really scratches both itches, hitting on some Lovecraftian/H.G. Wells horror with some incredible touches on the cosmic as well.
The album opens with the title track "A Horrific Illusion," and just from those first moments, you can tell this band has the chops to keep you fully invested for the whole ride. The sequencing of this record also was handled with such care, which is what makes this record stand out for me. It plays out so that you don't want to skip a single track, which I have found more and more difficult to create in this day and age. As we go through the album, the tracks that stand out for me the most are "Intergalactic Espionage," "Scarabs Beneath The Flesh," "Revealed By Moonlight," and "Return To Planet Earth." The longer tracks really allow for the musicianship and song structure to shine. The slow calm and palate cleanse of the clean guitars on "Revealed by Moonlight" into the album closure "Return To Planet Earth" is brilliant; it allows you to take two minutes and gather yourself before plunging into that final onslaught.
This album is high on my end-of-the-year list, and I am incredibly happy to have been able to find it on my weekly searches through BandCamp. This band could fit on a bill with anyone from the above-mentioned Vader, Nile, Between The Buried and Me, Gorguts, to more recent bands like Blood Incantation, Outer Heaven, Sanguisugabogg. They are death metal enough for that crowd while being technically sound enough to impress that side of the spectrum as well. I see a very bright future for this band and recommend this being an immediate pick up for any metal fan, new or old.
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