ALBUM REVIEW: Belus - "Apophenia"

By: Mark Ambrose

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 13/10/ 2017

Label: Vendetta Records

“Apophenia” is a breathtaking experience, a challenging listen, and an auspicious first entry from one of the few bands with the audacity to experiment and the chops to pull it off.

 “Apophenia” CD//CS//DD//LP track listing

1. Chasm

2. Monolith

3. Avarice

4. Illusions

5. Psychosis

6. Omens

7. Equilibrium

The Review

Belus has one of the most memorable rhythm sections in blackened metal.  From the opener, “Chasm”, drummer Jacques fluidly alternates between blast beats and groove-indebted, borderline funk fills.  The bass work is equally indebted to funky post-punk, like a black metal Mike Watt, while the guitar tone glides between classic tremolo picking and lush, post-hardcore departures.  If the bass on “Monolith” were a bit higher in the mix, the disco beat would immediately invoke Public Image, Ltd.  For all I’ve said about the disparate influences and comparable non-metal acts, Belus is one hell of an interesting metal band on its own terms.  Guitarist Matt Mewton’s vocal delivery, particularly on album highlight “Avarice”, has an almost dual-toned rasped scream.  A lot of digital ink has been spilled regarding Dagon’s otherworldly, “reptilian” vocal style, but I’ve found Mewton’s tone equally alien and more tuneful.  There are moments that almost sound like throat singing.  This weirdness, paired with the mounting doom (and haunting synth) of final tracks “Omens” and “Equilibrium, are particularly rewarding upon multiple listens.  I found myself hearing unlikely harmonies in Mewton’s guitars and vocals, while even the blast beats and pared down bass riffing played with subtle rhythmic variations.

And yet Belus has me rethinking any “big picture” judgment or some unifying gestalt.  When so many bands practically construct a libretto for interpreting their latest prog missive, the very title is a challenge – or a warning.  “Apophenia”, for those (like me) who tend to fire up a Google search any time you encounter a new mystery word, is, according to Belus, the “human tendency to seek patterns in random information and assign unnecessary meaningfulness or importance to them”.  This bleak concept has been equally applied to the studies of psychology and esoteric magic.  How appropriate, then, for a band that treads equally in the morose world of black metal and the occult-obsessed dimensions of psychedelia, with some unexpected, schizophrenic sojourns into funk, punk, post-punk and doom, to confound the effort to bridge these concepts.  Each temporal shift, each genre-fluid amalgamation, each tortured vocal practically begs for interpretation for some larger, unifying theme, while constantly threatening the listener with sheer nihilism.  It’s a breathtaking experience, a challenging listen, and an auspicious first entry from one of the few bands with the audacity to experiment and the chops to pull it off.

“Apophenia” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook