#Belore Eastern Tales

Band: Belore
Album: Eastern Tales
Label: Northern Silence Productions
Release date: 05 April 2024
Country: France
Format: High-quality digital recording

Story-like dreams in a Middle Earth springfield should tell you everything you need to know about this record. As a band with a respectable reputation forming among epic black metal circles, Belore deliver their third opus, Eastern Tales in a faishon similar to their previous works, a beautiful piece of fantasy infused epicness in the vein of genre titans Summoning and more recent counterparts Sojourner and Eldamar. If you happen to keep up with such acts, then this album is guaranteed to delight your ears.

As soon as you go into the album, one of the first aspects that you notice is the use of various instruments, a trademark feature of Belore, and epic black metal in general. These include, of course, synth, bagpipes, flute, acoustic guitars and many others. This blend of soundtrack sounding melodies, the multitude of vocal layers and the classic tremolo riffs and blast beats, offers Eastern Tales a very complete vibe, every piece working together in the musical ensemble. I am particularly fond of the diversity of the vocal performance, as it ranges from classic style extreme vocals, to very dramatic, choir like segments, and gentle solo passages that really get both your imagination and feelings going. The album itself invites you to dream, to get lost into your own head.

Another aspect of the album I would love to delve more into is the balance between the ”acoustic” side of things, so to say, and the black metal side of things. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, throughout the album there is a very strong presence of various instruments such as acoustic guitar, synth, even bagpipes, flute and violin. I believe that each of these instruments is meant to be used in a similar manner to the vocals, given of their unique sounds and mood they induce. The soft guitar blends beautifully with the almost uplifting synth. These are contrasted by an almost melancholic touch brought by the violins, all of this being topped with the gentle flute and powerful, moving bagpipe segments. There are, of course, solo passages for all of these instruments, which really help highlight the thought put into the songwriting process, when all of these instruments go together, it’s a totally different level. Add the guitar and drums, and you’ve got yourself a perfect example of quality epic black metal with some welcome folk hints.

I would also like to delve into the black metal side of things, particularly because, at times, it becomes rather easy to get lost into the music and not pay much attention to it. However, I believe it is just as worthy of praise as are all the other aspects of the album. Although it is heavily rooted in standard melodic black metal playing, the guitar works, unsurprisingly, includes more uplifting, epic melodies, that go hand in hand with the synth. Similarly, it also includes a wide range of techniques, from tremolo to some good old soloing here and there on various tracks. The drumming is far from being the center of attention, being mostly faded in the background, but is still manages to make its presence felt via the use of galloping rhythms, and its pulse like quality, which has almost become a classic feature of the band.

All in all, Belore’s Eastern Tales is a really solid album, that goes really well as an easy, relaxing listen, particularly after a long day. If my description sparked your interest, I greatly recommend checking it out. 9.5/10 by Ioana

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