From Iceland — Beneath: Enslaved By Fear

Published February 22, 2013

Anything Beneath touches oozes experience and focus. When they have something new out, people get anxious. Will they put everyone else to shame? Will they top their previous outputs? These are all relevant questions befitting a band of Beneath’s stature.
‘Enslaved By Fear’ is relentless. This modern death metal cacophony is laced with nuances, a persuasion for melody and a barrage of riffs that dazzle yet sometimes irk. The triggered drumming boggles. The smorgasbord of riffs is baffling, but the execution impresses.
I particularly like the guitar tone, which is “earthy” in contrast to many bands of similar ilk. It also bears rare but organic gaffes not typically accepted in an over-produced genre. It sounds like a progressive war machine on the offensive against religion.
If you’re not easily fatigued by extreme, brutal, grim, heavy and fast music, you’ll be creaming your pants. Apart from the excellent title track and “Monolith,” shaving some of the tremolo picking and blasting snare and kick-drums off the tracks would have made this one even stronger.