Proverbial Goth metal underdogs Beseech have had a varied, albeit unremarkable career. After bouncing from label to label during the latter part of the 90’s and into the new millennium, the band has finally found a home at the breeding ground for Goth metal’s top bands, Napalm Records. With Sunless Days, Beseech strikes while the iron is hot during the early portions of the album, leaving an indelible mark thanks to a handful of shimmering, haunting Goth metal numbers.

The songs in question-‘The Outpost,’ ‘Everytime I Die’ and ‘Lost’ are simply some of the finest compositions heard in this realm all year. Employing a Draconian Times-era Paradise Lost tone, melded with swooning, graceful female vox (courtesy of Lotta Hoglin), Beseech firmly plants its feet in tumultuous, desperate soil with driving power chords and harmonious keyboard work.

Of the aforementioned tracks, ‘Everytime I Die’ emerges as the victor, almost bettering the Children Of Bodom song bearing the same name. With a simple, obvious chord progression, Hoglin is able to chant, hum, and flutter across a lavish Goth landscape that is simply irresistible once an eerie, troubling clean guitar tone enters the fray at the halfway point.

Do not dismiss the value of the remaining 7 tracks, for they offer something of worth, yet it is the aforementioned three songs that are in constant rotation in these parts and have earned their place in the annals of ‘Summer Song’ territory. As for Sunless Days and the future of Beseech, the long pilgrimage the band has been on since the early 90’s will hopefully amount to something far greater than what the restraining Goth metal scene can offer.

» napalmrecords.com