Beansidhe
De Mortis Eloquentia
7.7
“Swiss death/thrash,” I thought to myself, “that has to be good.” And so I signed up to review Beansidhe’s EP De Mortis Eloquentia. Exactly how the words "Swiss death/thrash" inspired such confidence remains a bit of a mystery, but it likely had something to do with Coroner, Celtic Frost and the Victorinox Swiss army knife I carry in my pocket. It is funny how the brain works, but as it turns out the logic (if you can call it that) proved out: Beansidhe makes some respectable metal.
As death/thrash goes Beansidhe is more polished than I am used to. In fact, one could make the argument that the band’s sound strays into melodic death metal territory, but even if that is so, Beansidhe are definitely not another Gothenburg-styled band. Beansidhe’s music does have a strong melodic presence, but thrash-styled riffing provides the foundation for most of the band's songs, and the abundant blast beats lend the songs a sense of brutality not often found on your average melodic death record.
Of the five tracks on De Mortis Eloquentia (not counting the unnecessarily long intro), three of them -- “MDCCLXXXII”, “Dehumanized” and the epically titled “On Bloodsoaked grounds Grenades They Ate" -- are compact, fairly straight ahead burners. These songs, however, pack enough melody and well placed technical flourishes to keep things interesting. On “Shifting Saints” and “Wisdom through Grey,” the band still keeps the tempos high, but they stretch the running time to allow for a few perks like a clean intro and some extended soloing in the former and the lengthy melodic coda in the latter.
Beansidhe’s blend of styles gives them a fairly broad potential fan-base, and the band’s above average technical ability and songcraft only strengthens its position. I could see De Mortis Eloquentia appealing to fans of such diverse bands as Arsis, Arch Enemy, The Crown and perhaps even The Chasm.
