Besna - Zverstvá (2022)
By Flork!
What catches my attention right off the bat is the opening few bars of the title track. I just love the soft melodic beauty of the keyboard, slow and soothing, and then it suddenly disappears with an explosion of vocals, drums, and guitar. This is actually the second track of the self-released, debut album by the Slovak post black metal band from Bratislava, Besna. It’s a great tune that contains all the usual elements of black metal music, yet is a level up with great production and amazing incorporation of keyboards riding alongside the high notes of the guitars.
I go back and press the play button on the opening track, Ľadovec (Iceberg), and I am immediately sucked into a melodic, yet atmospheric mix of anger and beauty, with the raw fury of the vocals contrasting the skill and production of the instruments perfectly. The third track, Fúga (Fugue) speaks for itself. A masterful contrapuntal composition that is interspersed with moments of heaviness and lightness, as well as fast and slow tempos. Interestingly enough, although I don’t know if this was the artist’s intention, but a Fugue state is characterised by a kind of psychogenic disorder, where one suddenly slips into a temporary amnesiac state with unplanned travel and wanderings. I could be wrong, but this track is definitely reminiscent of such behaviour.
The following tracks, Margita (Margarette) and Revúca (East Slovak town) are both epic melodies that include elements of shoegazing, at least in the former, as Revúca is a heavier and darker, post-metal tune. These two songs contrast each other heavily, with Margita sounding positive and hopeful while Revúca is quite the opposite – doomy and gloomy.
Each track hovers around the seven-minute mark, and the album finishes with Spev drozda (Song of the Blackbird), another masterpiece that has a long, slow intro, but undoubtedly breaks into rage anger, a perfect way to end the album and go back and listen to it all over again.
For a debut album, Zverstvá gets high marks for both talent and studio production. The album was released just a few days ago on March 11th, so it was nice to be one of the first to hear it and comment on it. There are about 50 copies of the vinyl available for purchase from the bandcamp.com website, as well as the CD that includes original artwork and an extra foreword to each song.
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