VALOTON — Beastificate (review)

VALOTON — Beastificate album cover Album · 2010 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Vehemency
Valoton’s debut album stands as a fairly surprising addition to Hammer of Hate’s roster, considering Valoton’s somewhat modern and technical style in which they play black metal with hints of death metal thrown in too. Attacking with ultimate speed, yet not forgetting atmosphere and a good sense of melody, Beastificate turns out to be a good, richly textured piece of black metal, though it has its flaws too.

In the beginning, Beastificate is most notably fast, fast and fast. The sea of blast beats seems endless and the guitars fire their tremolos all the way through, but the music still has its catchiness, especially when the album ventures to the third track ”Jaws of Abaddon” that adds some interesting elements of melodic breakdowns into the relentless war. This variation is further explored in the belligerent rhythms of ”Avatar” and most clearly in the grande finale ”Reborn in Flames” which incorporates some sweet, epic female singing - a definite highlight moment on the album. The crispy, tight production fits the professionally played instruments very well.

The minus points go to Beastificate’s unsurprising nature. A lot of good ideas have been implemented into the eight assaults plus interlude, but only rarely does the album show Valoton’s own identity which is still somewhat unclear to me even after numerous spins. Ultimately, Valoton stays in rather safe grounds of its musical influences and doesn’t dare to go much further. This is just a generalization of the album though, as there are certain moments that I simply love, but at times it’s hard to say what’s the difference between Beastificate and some other modern deathened black metal record. All the nagging now aside, this is definitely a well done debut album with great musicianship, and recommended to those who don’t mind professional and modern aspects in black metal.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

Gaia Metalcore
RELATIONS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Decievers Deathcore
ORACLE SPECTRE
Buy this album from MMA partners
A Fountain Of Anguish Is Gone Sludge Metal
TIGGUO COBAUC
Buy this album from MMA partners
Colossal Oppressor Sludge Metal
TEN TON SLUG
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tribus Rattus Mortuus Atmospheric Sludge Metal
TRAP RATT
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Relations - Schwarzes Blut - 2020 - Lyric Video
RELATIONS
Bosh66· 6 hours ago
RELATIONS - SHELTER (Official Video)
RELATIONS
Bosh66· 6 hours ago
RELATIONS - NIGHT LIGHTS (Official Video)
RELATIONS
Bosh66· 6 hours ago
ORACLE SPECTRE - VOIDSAYER (OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO) [2023]
ORACLE SPECTRE
Bosh66· 7 hours ago
WOMBMOTHER | ORACLE SPECTRE (LYRIC VIDEO)
ORACLE SPECTRE
Bosh66· 7 hours ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed