The new album before me today, Let Time Begin by BEAK, is a big ol slab of Heavy, with a wide field of view of genres, excellent playing, and a pure brooding atmosphere. Its a pretty good listen, but that’s not really saying much, eh? More after the break!
This album opens with a sound not unlike older era Mastodon, ala Remission or Leviathan. Its heavy, and very much wanting to let out some emotion via the torn out vocals of the singer. Now, they don’t have the raw groove and talent that Mastodon has, but they have that same spirit flowing through them. They pound and chug through like champs, and make a great showing on the aforementioned opener, Souls in Stream. The next one, Light Outside, opens a bit more softly, with melodic plucking and picking, very soft light coming. Fiery They Rose probably best highlights the album, it has a little bit of everything BEAK can deliver, all wrapped up nicely in under 7 minutes.
BEAK throws lots of variance at you over the course of the 8 songs on the album, going from the hard charging riff, to a softer almost progressive sound, into a gritty slow thrum. It doesn’t get boring, with only the vocalist’s (Jon Slusher) dirge staying consistent. His voice is very gritty, with a slightly shouted delivery, and it sounds like a few bands out now, but I can’t quite think who is close enough. He is understandable, and filled with passion. Its a good fit for the band overall, but that honestly may be the thing that people find tiresome. I do not, but it’s the only found that could turn someone off, in all fairness.
Overall the album is very good, definitely something that could be thrown in a heavy playlist rotation that wouldn’t detract from any mix at all. According to the band:
A follow-up to Eyrie (their first album), “Let Time Begin is the Big Bang, The Fall of man, the unnameable; it’s our interpretation of the origins of the Universe”, says lead vocalist and guitarist Jon Slusher. “It is a concept record that evolves sonically from Eyrie with more concise composition and a new, frightening pallet of alternating violence, tranquility and melody. We’ve absolutely ramped up the primal and pounding rhythm section. We’ve appropriated vocoding into the mix and pioneered new ways to tear out our throats.”
The title was inspired by passages in Legion by William Peter Blatty. Utilizing cut-up phrases from Paradise Lost, America a Prophecy, Leviathan, and A Brief History Of Time and others, Slusher constructed the album’s lyrical content. The story moves from chaos to the birth of consciousness – a power and autonomy that drives man to rise up and become the very storm from which he sought shelter.
FInd Let Time Begin on September 23, 2014, wherever Quality music is sold!
