Besotten – Eye of the Monolithicrypt (Polymathic Syncretic Deathdoom)
Ah, deathdoom! What a genre! Or, better to state, what a genre if the right folks are making it. The issue with it is extremely simple to explain. Most bands with this tag focus too much on death, with not enough doom, or the other way. It’s easy to fall into this trap because combining both is far more challenging than it would first seem. For a true synthesis to occur, the strengths of both need to dominate while any potential weaknesses are largely avoided. It’s easiest to explain what I mean by using doom as a reference point, because quite often “the slow” is what you get for that part of deathdoom, and slowness in itself is extremely ineffectual without some bite. You can’t just toss in bite after slow and claim you’ve earned the tag. So that’s what I mean. If you want to combine both genres together, you need to do it like Portland, Oregon’s Besotten. Otherwise just go away.
Eye of the Monolithicrypt is the band’s first full-length after a split and a single demo drop. Talk about champions of the true path (with little street cred prior). We have here true polymaths, likely from puberty, maybe even birth, crafting the deathdoom here. Besotten (rather surprising no one thought of this name before) are true to their chosen moniker. Their music properly melds both parts of deathdoom into a cruel mockery of music and a heavy weight upon what soul remains of the listener. And they can fucking solo too, let me tell you. I was also quite surprised at how much better each track grows throughout the entire listen. By the end they’ve given you all they’ve got, and any more would leave you in a state of existence equal to their name. I mean if you aren’t fucking Besotten after this, in more than one way, you should go away too.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Besotten – Eye of the Monolithicrypt
Transcending Obscurity
Cover Art: David Kukoľ (Lord Serus)
4.8 / 5
