Very rarely will you hear a sound that is novel yet great at the same time. Experimentation carries significant risk, and it is understandable that some musicians rather iterate on established sounds. Inherus surprise on their debut album by melding doom metal and post rock in a way that I have not quite heard before. Beholden starts out comfortable in the current doom landscape, recalling bands like Crypt Sermon and Pallbearer, if not for the fact that the guitars are less emphasized for their raw nature in favor of a great bass heavy sound. This is apparent in opener “Forgotten Kingdom” where a piece of doom is interrupted by a bass breakdown and clean vocals that build for the latter two thirds of the 9:40 minute track. It is a ballsy move and makes clear the influence of guitarist/vocalist Bezaelith, that some might recognize from her other bands Forlesen and Lotus Thief. To offset her vocals, some throaty growls are added to the mix even if they are surprisingly sparse throughout the hour long album. Rounding things out is a lead guitar that often treads leads that graduated from the school of Gregor Mackintosh (Paradise Lost), though never sounding dependent on the style or exactly as weepy in its expression.
But as you might notice, the elephant in the room with Beholden is some hefty song lengths and I am of two minds with how to rate the album. On the one hand, most of the songs stretch way past the point where they should end with a lot of repetitions. On the other hand, the material is strong, with great vocal hooks from Bezaelith‘s side as well as very compelling atmospheres built by the post influence that the sound is dependent on. Songs like “One More Fire” and “The Dagger” have great vocal hooks that suffer the late career Iron Maiden-curse of being repeated too many times. On the other hand, the former has a great post rock melody building for its first half and the latter has some great drum work that builds the song up with a splashing hi-hat and marching rhythms. It is a sound that yet feels raw in form and closer “Lie to the Angels” displays what happens when all of it comes together beautifully. This 13 minute behemoth somehow mixes Alice in Chains like alternative metal, huge and surprisingly dirty growls, battling post rock and doom metal lead guitar work, bass breakdowns and a huge crescendo with overbearing doom metal riffs. Beholden is an album that is easy to like and to keep coming back to. While it falls short of the emotive progressive doom that Slumbering Sun revealed on their debut, the crushing beauty of Mornful Congregation‘s new EP and Dodheimsgard‘s hypnotic new album, Inherus still display a great blend of elements on their debut that I hope will continue to evolve as the main songwriters learn to utilize each other’s strengths better.
