Bereft

Maybe, the scene of the United Kingdom is very small, but more and more bands appear at regular intervals. Bereft, as you understood, come from the United Kingdom. They consist of one member, they were formed in 2010 and the self – titled “Bereft” is their first release. The album contains nine compositions, during one hour and five minutes. Indeed, me too I was surprised by its vast duration.

About the music, the album is into the cold, mid – paced, harsh and melancholic Black Metal, with a few majestic elements. The riffs are quite repetitive, but interesting. The rhythm guitar is raw and harsh, whereas the lead guitar, which takes over the majestic parts, is clean and puts out a melancholic feeling. So the cold sound of the rhythm guitar is combined with the warm, melancholic sound of the lead guitar and that’s how the sound of Bereft is created. The keys that exist in the album are used in a few parts and they give even more majestic character to the compositions. The drums are simple, rhythmic drums without anything mentionable. The bass is hardly heard, so I don’t know if it’s good. The vocals are harsh, Black Metal vocals, quite expressive.

Concerning the production, the job that has been done isn’t good enough. It is harsh, quite dirty, but not bassy at all, so the compositions are quite empty. The mix also is moderate, because the bass is buried and the vocals should be louder. The lyrics are written in English but they weren’t contained in the promo so I don’t know what they are about. Guessing by the music, they may talk about loneliness, darkness and personal thoughts.

Generally the album is moderate. The riffs in some tracks are very interesting, while in other they are monotonous and boring. Also, apart from the bad production and mix, I didn’t like at all the keys, which seemed to me silly and they were ruining completely the atmosphere. If we consider that this is the first, it isn’t a bad effort. The next may be better. Only for the fans of this sound.