Beherit - "Drawing Down the Moon" (1993) REVIEW – Spinefarm Records

Описание: Beherit - "Drawing Down the Moon" (1993) – Spinefarm Records

We are in 1993, one of the most significant years for Black Metal together with 1994. It is the year of masterpieces coming out of Norway — the nation that truly set the pace for the entire movement — such as "Under a Funeral Moon", "Det Som Engang Var", "Pure Holocaust", and "Dark Medieval Times"; to which Sweden responded with "Those of the Unlight" and "The Somberlain", and Greece with "The Mighty Contract", just to name the most important ones…
Obviously, Finland was certainly not standing by watching, giving birth to records such as "Ugra Karma" or the hybrid "Never Again"; and among the various emerging realities, another band with a less fortunate fate, Beherit, delivered its heavy blow with "Drawing Down the Moon", released through Spinefarm Records.

Beherit is a project formed in 1989 in Rovaniemi, and they became popular in the Finnish underground through three demos ("Seventh Blasphemy", "Morbid Rehearsal, and Demonomancy") and one EP ("Dawn of Satan’s Millennium"), all released in the same year, 1990.
The Beherit line-up consisted of Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance (vocals, guitar, programming), Black Jesus (bass), and Necroperversor (drums).
The Finns’ debut is still a somewhat primordial Black Metal effort, carrying with it many thrash/death echoes — in addition to those of early Venom and Bathory — which nonetheless coexist with a slightly experimental dimension and ambient-tinged outlines, poised to take over in the near future, as can be sensed for instance in Summerlands, with its truly engaging synths and wind instruments. This made the record more interesting and distinctive, even if at the time it caused some first-generation fans to frown, also due to the marked slowing down of the overall sound compared to previous works.
Vengeance’s vocal lines are also highly evocative, alternating between growls, half-screams, and numerous whispers that lend the platter an unsettling and evocative touch… just listen to "Nocturnal Evil" or "Werewolf, Semen and Blood".

If the union between the dark ambient side and the rawness of thrash/black-styled riffs and rhythms, combined with Sabbath-like pacing, grants the album a very intriguing mystical aura, it must nevertheless be noted that here and there there are some drops in tension, and that the songwriting is still in need of refinement. This applies both to the authenticity of certain riffs, which come across as slightly derivative, and to some moments where the album’s various souls feel fragmented, revealing its nature as a work still in need of some stylistic polishing.
Nothing serious, however: we must always remember that it was only 1993, and Beherit were among the pioneers of the Finnish Black Flame — something will have to be forgiven them.
A record I recommend all lovers of the genre to recover, which, despite a few imperfections, lives on an arcane magic that has managed to cross the mountain passes of time unscathed.

Rating: 8/10

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