Inherus - Beholden

Inherus’s debut “Beholden” begins like a siege—a few drumbeats fall like a battering ram before the gate is breached and the relentless, driving riffage pours in accompanied by war-cry growls. But like any good campaign, the aural assault is patient, persistent—doling out haunting flourishes on the melody and spacious clean vocals that build and weave into that feeling of doomed resignation in face of slow-burn ravages. And that’s just the opening track, “Forgotten Kingdom.”

Very rarely do I listen to a metal record and think of it as timeless, yet Inherus has achieved this with “Beholden,” released earlier this year in May. Perhaps it is because there are clearly a variety of genres present; everything between psych-rock to good old-fashioned heavy metal makes an appearance—with sprinklings of black metal and a heap of doomy scuzz to round it off and seamlessly blend into something cohesive but difficult to place in time and category.

More than this technical description though, is the quality of emotion this album pulls from me upon each listen. Drums pound out a primal propulsion. Droning guitars surge and surround like a storming sky in a timelapse sequence. The music feels infused with something ancient and instinctual—as if it could be the catalyst to awaken our hero’s terrible purpose and provide the soundtrack to the dreadful fulfillment of whatever ill fate was set for her at birth.

At the center of this sonic squall are Beth Gladding’s aching vocals. Her voice simply drips with delicious mysticism and eldritch authority like the prophetess of a forgotten religion—deftly wielding her instrument in an attempt to mend the rift between our world and the realm of gods. “The Dagger,” the album’s nearly 14 minute long third track, epically illustrates her talents best.

And yet while I describe the grandiose and transcendent atmosphere Inherus’s music produces, it never becomes so inflated that it loses the listener. The album captures the thrilling feeling of looking out over a crater, yes, but while we stand at the precipice our feet are securely planted.

I know not everyone will experience this record as the soul-saturating journey I did, but isn’t the fact that music can and does allow us safe engagement with the existential devastation of the sublime so freaking beautiful? The right combination of amplitude and frequency prods at something deep in our amygdala and somehow attunes us to that fleeting feeling of the universal.

My advice? Wait for the next full moon, get a great pair of headphones, and let this album lead your wanderings in the lunar light. Think of ancestors that walked with their shadows cast by that same satellite. Think of what you’ll do to ensure generations ahead enjoy this same self-indulgence. After all, we’re all “Beholden” to something in this life.

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