BENEVOLENT LIKE QUIETUS „Kill The Bliss”

Asher Media Relations, 2020

Music: Gothic Metal

Website:

https://www.facebook.com/blqband/

https://benevolentlikequietus.bandcamp.com/releases

Duration: 46:00 minutes (11 tracks)

Country: Canada

This is the first Canadian album. A few years ago they released one single “Where Dead Hearts Reside”, which we will also hear on this album. The musicians reminded me that in the 90s of the last century I listened to a lot of Gothic Metal in various representation. Those heavier forms and quite light ones. It can be said that BENEVOLENT LIKE QUIETUS combines these two incarnations of Gothic Metal. Which is mainly heard in vocals. At one pole we will hear quite low and deep men’s songs in the style of THE 69 EYES or TYPE’O’NEGATIVE (after all, these vocals in BENEVOLENT LIKE QUIETUS are in a higher tone and more often go into higher parts). And in turns at the other pole we have a hoarse but still melodious singing which in effect brings memories about Swedish CEMETARY or Finnish SENTENCED. However, this is not the end of vocal emanations. In the gusts of stronger emotions, animal growlings and demonic screaming emerge, which in these moments also reminds MOONSELL.

The music seems rather balanced. The heavy, melodious gloomy-melancholic themes with the characteristic structures of riffs and solos form the basis of the arrangement. But there are musical phrases in various directions, for example towards more rock-gothic themes (even with softer guitars) or even doom-death-gothic patents (with powerful riffs) or modern-metal accents (I not want to write in Core style) . And the delicate keyboards in the background sometimes loom somewhere.

It is similar with the rhythm of the whole. Average rates dominate. However, when the intensity of emotions, vocals or guitar plays increases then the pace increases. Noticeable decelerations are less common.

The album features an interestingly arranged cover-song of TEARS FOR FEARS “Mad World”, of course in a Gothic Metal version. But the song did not lose its original climate and gained this Metal power.

BENEVOLENT LIKE QUIETUS has combined several interesting musical solutions introduced by the predecessors of this genre. They added a bit of modern breath and contemporary trends and created a really good debut album – dark, heavy, sometimes bloodthirsty, sometimes romantic, definitely atmospheric – Gothic!