Beseech: album reviews and ratings

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Reviews & Recommendations

	Beseech (1992 - 2006)

Artist Listing:

S - Z

BESEECH: Swedish Gothic-Metal band formed in 1992. Released their debut album in 1998.

Line-up:
Erik Molarin - Male vocals
Lotta Höglin - Female vocals
Jonas Strömberg - Drums
Klas Bohlin - Guitar/Vocals (left the band in 2003)
Robert Spånglund - Guitar/Programming
Daniel Elofsson - Bass
Mikael Back - Keyboard

Beseech Discography - Album / CD Reviews

1998: ... from a bleeding heart
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¾ 2000: Black Emotions
"(...) On a couple of tracks, especially on Neon Ocean, influences from another Swedish metal band with ties to the Gothenburg scene, Tiamat, shine through. The mood is gloomy, the pace is slow and voice has been treated with plenty of delay. Yep, this one is definitely goth. Overall, it is a decent piece of goth metal, but Tiamat are a long way ahead of Beseech. 'Black Emotions' lacks complexity and surprises. The instrumental tracks are the kind of bland piano ambient stuff that, together with organ music, church bells and monk quires for some reason seem to be required components on 'gothic' albums. "

-- Mattias Huss, releasemagazine.net, 11/2000

¾ 2002: Souls Highway
"A significant leap from their last effort (Black Emotions), Souls Highway showcases a band stepping away from its initial doom tendencies and finding its niche in gothic metal. While the style is very familiar in the genre, - classic Beauty and the Beast type of male/female contrast- , Beseech offer on Souls Highway a handful of melodic dark ballads fused with that melancholic touch, and manage to make their cover of ABBA's Gimme Gimme sound surprisingly grandiose. A pleasant and engaging listen from start to end...Recommended!"
Favorite Picks: Sunset 28, Endless Waters, A Last Farewell

-- Said Sukkarieh, musicfolio.com, 5/02

¼ 2004: Drama
Tracklisting: 01. Drama 02. Higher Level 03. Voices 04. Forever Falling 05. Bitch 06. Addicted 07. Come On In 08. Friend Emptiness
"Beseech is one of few goth-rockers that hasn’t yet fallen prey to lethargic monotony, following up 2002’s great 'Souls Highway' with another energetic and completely solid release, Drama. All aspects of 'Drama' are a continuation of its predecessor; there’s nothing so strikingly different as to upset the purist fans, but there are enough nice new touches to make it clear that the band refuses to stagnate. Almost all of the new additions to the sound are good, most notably the subtle and tasteful use of electronics in most of the songs. They never overpower the rest of the music like they’re prone to doing so much of the time, but when in use they’re always apparent and useful to the song. To keep things diverse, there’s also a good deal of industrial influence throughout the album. The song Addicted is the most obvious example of this; the beginning of the sound wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a KMFDM album and the precise, almost mechanical sounding beat goes throughout giving it a cold and harsh feel. It’s quite a contrast from the warm tones on the rest of the album, and is a great change of pace. While this is the most obvious use of their new-found liking for industrial, there are other places on the album where the sound is apparent but less blatant, for example the second and seventh songs, Higher Level and Come On In, respectively."

-- Elysian, Metal Review, 1/04

2005: Sunless Days
Tracklisting: 01. Innerlane 02. The Outpost 03. A Bittersweet Tragedy 04. Everytime I Die 05. Devil's Plaything (Danzig Coversong) 06. Lost 07. Last Obsession 08. Emotional Decay 09. Restless Dreams 10. The Reversed Mind - Bonus (ltd edt): 11. Manmade Dreams (Remake, 2005 version) 12. Lost (Emotional)

"The band has a long history, more than ten years, but they never managed to play a first role in atmospheric metal. (...) Starting from doom/death in their very early steps, they ended up in the vault of gothic metal/rock. This is a very difficult kind of music, because everything is so saturated, especially by bands of the Scandinavian Peninsula. 'Sunless Days' is a very nice and successful mixture of Katatonia and HIM, but this is as far as it goes. The music will surely remind you something else, something you have listened before. (...) Unfortunately, two or three are the only songs that worth listening and the one of them is not theirs (Devil's Plaything, a decent Danzig cover). The other one is The Outpost, which is a typical melodic song that could make some sort of impact in certain audiences, while another weak ray of light is Lost, which is based on the beautiful voice of Lotta Höglin. The production is at the ordinary high standards for every Swedish band that respects itself..."

-- Giannis Tsakonas, metalperspective.com, 10/05

10/06: In an official statement on their band website Beseech call it quits.

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Recommended Links:

The official Beseech site
BeseechFanClub