If your self released effort gets reviewed here, you must be doing something right, and the UK’s (Bradford) The Belonging show that a self released effort can compete with most label released efforts.

I don’t remember much about the bands prior release, Setting the Scene, so it could not have been that good, but on Ashes…the quartet, like country mates Spearhead, deliver a tight take on slightly melodic black metal that culls from the likes of Dissection, Naglfar Marduk and such-and they do it pretty well.

Despite a very muted production that can be expected from a self released effort, Ashes.. delivers a solid take on the genre and even throw in a more experimental tracks with the moody pace, clean chants and strings of “Oracle of the Night” and well done acoustic injections of “Prophetic Visions” and the title track. The other tracks are your requisite tremolo picked assault that mix furious yet melodic blast beats (“Sacrifice the Life”, “Prophetic Visions”) and slightly death metal styled structures (“Eternal Kiss”, “Blood For the Gods”) that while lacking that tangible slice and razor sharp presence because of the production, still manage to convey a sense of balanced menace, song writing confidence that can only get better. The epic eight minute closing title track encompasses all that The Belonging is good at with solid militaristic breaks and a very cool Romanic, Middle Eastern blast beat.

If Ashes…had the production Spearhead had on Decrowning the Irenarch, this thing would have blown me away. As it stands The Belonging are ‘right there’ along with the likes of Scythian as far as unsigned UK black metal that is more than deserving on a record deal. Invictus Productions-are you reading this?

[Visit the band's website]

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