Belore – Eastern Tales

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The music of the Belore has a palate of epic and rich folk elements that reminds me of bands like Sojourner and Caladan Brood. Though the theme is rather in the same nature as fantasy music, each song is hypnotically mesmerizing and layered with gentle riffing and drums. The third full-length album “Eastern Tales” was released on April 5th, 2024, via Northern Silence Productions, and gives us the latest creativity from the French duo Aleevok (all instruments, vocals) and Charlie Videau (drums). I came late into this band, just two years ago when I became familiar with them through their sophomore release 'Artefacts'.

The music is driven by dreamy synth and folk-inspired symphonies like whistles and flutes. Belore possesses a distinctive sound in the genre with a flourishing synth background that creates vast sceneries. There seems to be a good balance between the ethereal appearances of the synth in the track ‘Sons of the Suns’. The composition is filled with dramatic guitar arrangements making the songs fluid and imaginative. This somehow provides a dreamy quality to a song like ‘Storm of an Ancient Age’.

The riffs and the drums build for raspy vocals. However, the clean vocals are overly used in each of the five tracks and despite the beautiful settings of the music I don’t consider their music black metal. The duo effortlessly captures the themes of fantasy by imbuing an epic quality. In many moments of this album the flutes recall bands like Falkenbach; the most intriguing texture is the use of the acoustic strings and clean vocals on ‘The Hermit Awakens’ where the music maintains a surreal atmosphere.

The folk instruments and the guitar solos are brought together in a soothing flair and emphasized in dramatic form, especially in the instrumental piece ‘Denelïor’s Betrayal’ which comes very close to the style of dungeon synth music.

The duo does a great job conjuring a catchy and ethereal musical state, albeit the use of the raspy vocals that sweep away the current modern clichés of folk/atmospheric black metal. The folk elements are widely showcased throughout, which somehow undermines the elements of black metal. The production is modern and clear so to speak. Belore delivers both: atmosphere and quality, but the songs lack that epic black metal feel.

The folk aura on the album is more dominant and counters the scale of lush guitar strings and synth, while other songs like ‘Battle for Therallas’ serve as a dramatic tapestry and add a dreamy quality to the guitars. The song comes to a perfect composition with female vocals in the background and the shimmering synth packed with guitar arpeggio melodies painting a folky richness that works well for this catchy, seven-minute track.

The synth is omnipresent on the closing track ‘The Rise of a Sovereign’ and the approach adheres closely to create multiple sounds of rich atmosphere that can be described as succulent melodic iwith the synth layered in the background. The raspy vocals are very appealing on this six-minute track, as they fit with the musical palate and tend to focus on the shimmering symphonies that emanate an aura of heavenly glades and silvery rivers in one’s imagination, when listening to the final moments of this track.

 

REVIEW SCORE

  • Music / Songwriting 7/10
  • Vocals / Lyrics 7/10
  • Mix / Production 7/10
  • Artwork & Packaging 7/10
  • Originality 7/10
7

This is a short album in length compared to the sophomore release and it is recommended if you like atmospheric and melodic folk music mixed with elements of black metal.

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