Be'lakor - The Frail Tide (2007)^{Release ID: 3686}

The debut album from these Melbourne-based melodic death metallers. It has all the usual subgenre boxes ticked but it also has a couple of points of difference. The first is their extensive use of piano throughout the album. I'm not entirely sure it actually enhances my listening experience (in fact in some cases it makes things sound a fair bit cheesier) but it certainly adds some interest. The second point of difference is the vocal style which is a lot deeper than your standard raspy MDM fair. It's more Johnny Hedlund (Unleashed) than Tomas Lindberg (At The Gates) & I find it to be very effective. I like the way they keep the song structures fairly simple & don't try to overcomplicate things. It leaves the songs feeling accessible & uncluttered. Having said that I'd like to hear a bit more variety in the way of tempo as they really do stick to a mid-paced rhythm throughout & they never really put the foot down. As for the quality of the songs, "The Frail Tide" does end up being a bit hit & miss in my opinion. There are some quite mature & fully realised tracks such as "The Desolation of Ares" & "Sanguinary" mixed in with some cheesier & more generic ones like "Neither Shape Nor Shadow". The six minute piano track "Paths" seems a bit overindulgent on a six track album too. Overall this is probably not as good as their more recent material but you could certainly hear the promise of better things.