Bethlehem - Dark Metal (1994)

Long before horrible bands, such as Xasthur and Lifelover, usurped the depressive black metal throne, the twisted freaks in Bethlehem were cranking out some of most suicidal and hopeless sounding tunes ever conceived.

Back in August of '94 when this album was originally released, Bethlehem really had their own thing going as this release displayed little direct influence from other bands. Okay, surely they borrowed a little bit from death/doom pioneers like Paradise Lost or My Dying Bride, but never, ever did those bands come close to the crippling heavy despairing sound that is found on 'Dark Metal.'

Running the gauntlet between painfully slow and ultra heavy death/doom metal with sudden mid-paced to brutal flashes of dissonant black metal bestiality, the occasional synth enrichment and sprinkles of melancholy piano plus hysterical vocals performed in both a violent shrieking blackened style and low guttural roars is what awaits the listener on this legendary release.

Kläus Matton's guitar work is full of sorrow from the first riff to last and its as if each one seems to tell its own story as the album plods along. His heavily down-tuned guitars ripped with reverb and delay just seem to always capture all of my attention and bring me to this different world while Jürgen Bartsch's bass guitar is playing its own thick and quite audible ominous riff alongside. Chris Steinhoff's drumming is adequately performed as well and he adjusts as the songs shift between doom and black metal. Of course Andreas Classen's vocals are among some of the best ever laid down and what truly makes them special is that they actually have emotion, much like Jonas Renkse's work on Katatonia's, 'Dance of December Souls,' but I have to speak the truth when I say Andreas' performance is better and the music its paired with is absolutely superior too.

Bethlehem would spend the next couple of years releasing similar sounding material, but due to the constant line-up changes it was hardly the same thing nor was it as good and somehow by the early half of the millennium the band left their dark roots completely behind in favor of some sort of alternative/electronic metal, which was just awful. Fortunately Jürgen has gone back to the bands roots in recent years with depressive black metal poster boy, Niklas Kvarforth at the vocal helm and they re-recorded their classic third album, 'Sardonischer Untergang im Zeichen Irreligiöser Darbietung,' which I haven't heard and since Kvarforth is involved I honestly don't care to either.

If you enjoy depressive black/death/doom metal then you absolutely owe it to yourself to own this album, but I have to warn you that you wont find any emo kids cutting their arms nor will you find any pompous big talkers shooting their mouths off within. What you will find is one of the heaviest and most honest displays of violent emotion set to music, ever.

Fucking Kill Yourself!