### Be'lakor: Stone's reach

#### 21/09/09 || Kampfar

The name Be’lakor doesn’t make any sense, apart from it coming across as both pretentious and silly, so I’ll refer to them as Bacalao from here on. Circa. Anywayz, the dish they got their new name from is indeed delicious, yummy in my tummy, but what this bunch of Aussies, 5 in all, have on the menu I like a fair bit less. We are namely talking melodic deth, a genre not about unleashing red-hot-fury fueled by piss and vinegar upon the masses. What I’m trying to say is this: I and this band ain’t a match made in Narnia.

Fuck Aslan!

But Bacalao and their second full-length, namely “Stone’s reach”, ain’t about to receive a massive fuck off from me. Yep, I shall indeed delete and forget all about it as soon as I’ve finished these scribblings you’re now reading, which I’m likely to end up forgetting I did in the first place, but that doesn’t make Baccalacca a shite orchestra.

Here’s why not:

“Stone’s reach”, apart from the absurd title, is a quality product through but not through. The production is fine, the instrumentation like-wise, we have a vocalist doing a decent growl, and there is more, so what’s the fucking problem then? I’ll tell ya: songwriting, or rather the lack thereof, turns this album into a snooze-fest around song 3 already.

Some will like this more than I, others could even end up digging it, and it makes no difference whatsoever. This bunch of fuckers into garnishing slow and slightly heavy riffs with a fair bit of (decent) leadwork, and little else, remains a melancholic one-trick-pony regardless of anyone’s opinion. Case closed, end of discussion, period, death, die.

Only recommended for those into the least extreme of what extreme-metal has to offer.

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Prime Cuts Music
- Website: Be’lakor Myspace
- Band
- George Kosmas: vocals, guitar
- Shaun Sykes: guitar
- John Richardson: bass
- Steve Merry: keyboards, samples
- Jimmy Vanden Broeck: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Venator
- 02. From scythe to sceptre
- 03. Outlive the hand
- 04. Sun’s delusion
- 05. Held in hollows
- 06. Husks
- 07. Aspect
- 08. Countless skies