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Beecher

This Elegy, His Autopsy

Written by: PP on 13/09/2005 19:46:28

Here's the review in one sentence: Beecher's sophomore full length "This Elegy, His Autopsy" is amazing. The album takes the best parts of their debut - the brutal, unmelodious hardcore you'd wanna be listening to while breaking down the walls of your room - and adds elements I would never have expected to hear on a Beecher album. The songs have much (and i mean MUCH) more space to breathe, the breakdowns are ever so ferocious, and the song writing has taken a stupendously big jump forward.

"The Womaniser And Alcoholic" is an instrumental industrial track with garage-like drumming accompanying a creepy but effective guitar melody on the background. It could easily be a track composed by Trent Reznor during the the early 90s Nine Inch Nails masterpieces, and it works as the perfect introduction to "Knight The Arsonists", the closest equivalent to the old songs.

But it's not until songs like "Not Guilty" and "...And On The Day That He Became A Human Plumb Line" that the band overwhelms the listener with brilliance. The latter track sneaked behind my back like a serial killer with experience of hundreds of murders before this one. Who would've thought that a band with songs as remorseless as "Red Diesel" could ever create anything so awe-inspiring and beautiful as this track. The beginning could just as well be from the new Coheed And Cambria album, and once the faded, spoken vocals start on the background the only thing certain is that this song is building up to a total destruction. When the breakdown finally comes at the end of the track and the heart scraping screams nearly blow your brains out, the only thing you can imagine is "This..THIS IS THE WAY HARDCORE SHOULD BE!"

"Man The Traps" continues on the same line, drawing influences from bands as far out as The Blood Brothers. I'm impressed as fuck, and we're just half way through the album. By the time the last song "Reach Up To The Gods" destroys its way through the speakers, my jaw has long gone been glued down to the ground. And when the final track of the album, "Reach Up To The Gods", takes all of the other tracks, pisses on them, and wipes the floor with them by just being one of the best hardcore songs I've ever heard, the band doesn't leave much space for critics. One of the best hardcore albums of the year.

Download: Reach Up To The Gods, Man The Traps
For the fans of: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge

Release date 12.09.2005
Earache records