Melbourne progressive death metal machine Be’Lakor return from a five year gap between albums with what is already being touted as the band’s most ambitious musical release yet.
While many bands are content to stick to a loosely based formula with each album Be’Lakor have never been content with playing it safe.
Their technical, yet melodic approach to a genre that generally shuns change comes to the fore on their new album Coherence, which is set for release on October 29.
By focusing on the songwriting and musicianship – particularly in terms of musical substance, Be’Lakor have assembled a collection of eight songs ranging from 12 minute epic journeys to instrumental interludes, all the while pushing themselves with the help of mixer Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, At The Gates).
Keyboard/pianist Steve Merry joined HEAVY to talk about Coherence.
“It’s obviously been a long time in the making for us,” he explained. “Five years is our longest gap between albums and partly that is because of the pandemic but partly because it took that long to write the album. For us we're very happy with it. It's a good mixture of all our previous albums and fresh ideas we've wanted to try out. It's mixed by Jens Bogram which has helped give it that kind of sound we were after and I'm really excited to see what people will think of it."
In the full interview, Steve talks more about the musical component of Coherence, the lyrical thread and concept behind it, the song lengths and what dictates them, finding the right balances when experimenting, writing in lockdown and more.