Having won a newcomer competition it’s first price was a one-day professional CD production, BENEATH FLOWERS went straight ahead into a studio to record these three track EP. Displeased with the mastering it took a little more time to rework the recordings, but now Germans progressive death/dark metallers come out with their sophomore demo production To Dispel. And I have to confess, the two years waiting has paid off more than just audible.
Songwriting is significantly more consequential, and while still keeping up the progressive touch that makes the songs somewhat tricky, they never lose the red thread. So, willing listeners won’t be overstrained. Also the singing Stefan Banz has improved a lot. He avoids higher pitches (where I had earlier the feeling he was singing off-key), uses his voice more expressive and varies between clean singing and growls and some spoken word passages in between.
The only one thing I’d like to nag about is still the musical closeness to Opeth and My Dying Bride, whereas the first named band stands out. Here I’d like to recommend the band to attach more importance to an own distinct style and identity as they started in the opener Silent Accuse (listen to it on MySpace). But also Fall (classic Opeth traits) and Bed To Worse (with a more My Dying Bride approach regarding the acoustic parts) exquisitely get stuck in the aural canals, making it easy to me to recommend this piece of music to fans of this genre.
The booklet is visually well-designed but without lyrics, they have fallen victim to problems with the print office, forcing the band to torture their home printer for the inlets.
To Dispel can be ordered via the band’s homepage for 5 Euro plus postage. Check them out!