Be'lakor Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

SHOW REVIEW: BE’LAKOR, PERSEFONE, ORPHEUS OMEGA (MELBOURNE, OCT. 11, 2025)

Oct 152025

(Australia-based NCS contributor Tør was lucky enough to see the Melbourne stop on a recent short tour by Be’lakor, Persefone, and Orpheus Omega, and he sent in the following report, accompanied by his photos of the show, in black and white below.)

I enter The Croxton Bandroom in Melbourne on a cool early spring evening, fashionably late. The recuring infection in my left ear has just flared up, and my tolerance for nonsense is at an all-time low.

As soon as I clear the ticket counter, I am greeted by Melbourne’s Orpheus Omega who are blazing through their set. What’s on display is Australian melodic death metal at its finest: solid riffs infused with clever use of keyboards and sweeping melodies. Frontman Chris Themelco navigates the guttural and clean passages with expertise and manages to engage the crowd in the process. The band’s latest release, Emberglow, will undoubtedly please traditional melodeath worshippers as well as those who dabble in the more symphonic end of the spectrum. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: STEVE MERRY (BE’LAKOR)

Interviews 1 Response »

Oct 062025

Photo Credit: Oli Sansom

(NCS contributor Tør last appeared in our shredded pages during the depths of the covid pandemic, but he rejoins us today from Australia with a very extensive and interesting interview of keyboardist Steve Merry from the Australian progressive/melodic death metal band Be’lakor following completion of their recent North American tour and just a few days away from the band’s three-date tour of Australia with Persefone and Orpheus Omega. We’re grateful to both of them for all the time and thoughtfulness they devoted to this discussion.)

NCS: Years ago when I was still in the US, I was always looking forward to you guys doing a US tour. So, that’s where I want to start because it kind of relates to me personally, but also just knowing that the tour landscape in the US is logistically so brutal. There’s a lot of travel involved, it’s a different culture, there’s gear challenges, and lots of other things going on. So my first question is, how did it go for you guys? Did it live up to your expectations?

SM: Well, firstly, I hope you’re coming to our Melbourne show, we’ve got you on the guest list.

NCS: Yes, I am!

A DGR REVIEW ARCHIVE (PART 3): BE’LAKOR AND MAYSALOON

Album Reviews No Responses »

Nov 172021

(This is the third Part of a week-long series of reviews by DGR as he tries to clear out a back-log before year-end Listmania descends.)

Be’Lakor – Coherence

Australia’s prog-death long-form masters Be’lakor are now five albums deep into their career, with their latest record – and second for Napalm Records – Coherence releasing just a few days before Halloween this year. Despite the five-year gap between Coherence and its older sibling Vessels, there’s no sign whatsoever that Be’lakor are making any attempt to change what works for them.

Since 2009’s Stone’s Reach the run-times for their albums have consistently stayed within the fifty-five minute to one-hour range. Part of the experience has been listening to how the band try to earn their time with you, because in all honesty, with the absolute flood of metal that is out these days, it’s a pretty big ask that you invest an hour of your time with one specific group.

In Be’lakor‘s case though, they’ve nearly always earned the right to do so and have proven time and time again that their ‘no part left behind’ writing style can be made to work within the confines of the prog-minded melodeath scar that the band have carved into the Earth. Continue reading »

DGR SEEN AND HEARD (PART 2): BE’LAKOR, THE VISION BLEAK, CENTAURUS-A, OBSCURA, THE SHADELESS EMPEROR, WITHERSCAPE, SOILWORK, SOLUTION .45

RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Jul 052016

(DGR presents this round-up of new music, which completes a two-part post that he began here.)

I joked in the previous collection that I wrote that the flood of music which hit in June was a little hilarious. There’s been so much that it feels like I’ve become a giant net in which news lands and then I dump the whole thing upon this site for users to romp around in, and guess what? The comedic flood of music continues unabated with Round Two of our roundup.

We posted Round One last week, and the dredging of the internet continues as we dig for more music videos/song streams/full album streams to talk about. This time around the collection is actually pretty Europe-heavy, with our one huge divergence being a trip out to Australia — which happens to be our lead-off as well. The collection of bands this time around also features one newer discovery and also a check-in with a band who haven’t had some stuff out in some time.

Be’lakor – Smoke Of Many Fires and Vessels Album Stream

We’ve reviewed Be’lakor’s Vessels already, and I share Andy’s opinion that Vessels is a really good album, but recent weeks have brought even more news — though I can now keep this a little more truncated. One is that the band premiered a lyric video for the song “Smoke Of Many Fires” over at Horror Society, and two, if you prefer your music streams less lyric-video-heavy, Bloody-Disgusting grabbed a whole album stream here. Continue reading »

BE’LAKOR: “VESSELS”

Album Reviews 6 Responses »

Jun 202016

(Andy Synn reviews the new album by Australia’s Be’lakor.)

With so much of its musical territory cannibalised in the boom and bust of the Metalcore bubble, and with so many of its originators/innovators either breaking up or shifting their sound (for better or for worse) into pastures new, it’s been a rough decade or so for the style known as “Melodeath”, particularly since most of its adherents seem to have long since settled into a comfortable rut of rehashing and reusing the same old riffs and the same old melodies, ad infintum, ad nauseum.

Heck, there’s practically a cottage-industry these days dedicated to churning out a stream of generic-brand Insomnium clones, as if the masses of faceless At The Gates rip-offs and soulless In Flames copycats weren’t already diluting the genre enough as it is.

So perhaps you can understand that, as much as I was looking forward to hearing the latest Be’lakor album, my expectations were tempered somewhat by my general dissatisfaction with the state of the modern Melodeath scene, and my still somewhat lukewarm feelings towards 2012’s solid, but unspectacular, Of Breath and Bone.

But blow me down and call me Shirley if the Aussie quintet haven’t stepped up their game on this one. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD (WEEKEND EDITION): SORCERY, BE’LAKOR, GEVURAH, DECEPTIONIST, CRYSTALMOORS, KALMANKANTAJA, SŪRYA

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 13 Responses »

Mar 262016

I blogged like a blogging fool last week, shirking my fucking day job to an embarrassing extent. Now I have to pay for all the shirking by working this weekend. Or at least that’s the plan; I wouldn’t bet a lot of money on that if I were you. But before I attempt to make good on that noxious plan, here’s a collection of news and new music that’s not noxious, except in a good way.

SORCERY

I discovered yesterday that Xtreem Music will be releasing a new Sorcery album named Garden of Bones on May 15. I’m as excited as a springbok being chased by a cheetah. Continue reading »

OUR LIST OF 2012’S MOST INFECTIOUS EXTREME METAL SONGS: PART 10

MOST INFECTIOUS SONGS-2012 11 Responses »

Jan 072013

This is Part 10 of our list of the year’s most infectious extreme metal songs. Each day until the list is finished, except today, I’m posting two songs that made the cut. For more details about what this list is all about and how it was compiled, read the introductory post via this link. To see the selections that preceded the three we’re announcing today, click here.

Australian metal killed it in 2012. I’m not saying that Australian metal bands weren’t killing it before last year, but in 2012 they put a stake through the heart and cut the head off. I’ve already included a song from one Australian band in this list (Gospel of the Horns), and today I’m adding three more — three songs from three great albums that helped make 2012 a banner year for metal from Down Under.

BE’LAKOR

Andy Synn reviewed Be’lakor’s Of Breath and Bone for us here. One song in particular infected me, and it brings a smile every time I hear its opening notes. The song is “Remnants”, and here’s what Andy had to say about it: Continue reading »

SUMMER BREEZE 2012 – THE REVIEW (Part 1)

Concert Reviews 7 Responses »

Sep 062012

(Our UK-based writer Andy Synn made the trek to Germany for this year’s edition of the SUMMER BREEZE festival, and provided us with a review of the bands whose performances he witnessed. We’ve divided the review into two parts. In this post, Andy covers the festival’s first two days, and tomorrow we’ll have his impressions of Day 3. We’ve also collected videos of many of the performances at the end of the post.)

So… German festivals go Thursday – Saturday, not Friday – Sunday… who knew? Well apparently everyone else in the world except for us, when we booked an overnight stay in Cologne on the Wednesday night! Still, Cologne was awesome, and only a mere four hours drive away…

Anyway, on reaching the site (after a desperate last minute rush to the petrol station – seriously, make sure you fill up before you reach the Dinkelsbuhl exit guys and gals!) we joined a surprising, infuriating, queue of cars, followed by an interminable security check… time was ticking away and Be’lakor (one of my primary reasons for going to the festival) would soon be taking the stage! So with some slightly rushed stunt driving (I’m pretty certain I went down that grass verge as much sideways as I did forwards) and a breathless scramble… we made it. Just.

DAY 1

Justifying our desperate, occasionally slightly risky, efforts to get to the festival on time, Be’lakor were undeniably awesome. Live, the Agallochian overtones of the music come through a lot more, a melding of misty melancholy with swells of oceanic heaviness giving the band a more distinctive and individual live presence. The group’s image is a little difficult to reconcile with the music though, encompassing a host of short haircuts, laid-back Australian accents, and inappropriate t-shirts! Shame on you guys!

The next band I was dying to see also happened to be one of my favourites, my loyalty to Darkest Hour forcing me to choose them in an unfortunate clash with Glorior Belli. And though it pained me to do so, I’m glad I did. Darkest Hour never disappoint, their punky, hyper-energetic take on melodic death metal fitting perfectly with the blazing sunshine and free-wheeling atmosphere of the festival. Plus, I was still yet to see them live with either the new material or the new line-up, and both absolutely killed it live. Continue reading »

THINGS I SAW THIS MORNING

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 24 Responses »

May 312012

I saw this album cover. It’s for the next album by Dysrhythmia, Test of Submission, which Profound Lore says they will be releasing on August 28. No test is needed . . . I am ready to submit.

I also saw that Be’lakor has just put HD versions of all the songs from their terrific new album Of Breath and Bone up on YouTube. Find those tracks here. Read Andy Synn’s review of the album here. (And thanks to NCS reader Daniel for the tip on this news.)

I also saw that Doris Yeh from Chthonic is on the cover of a fashion magazine called FHM. I no longer have to wonder what she looks like naked. Continue reading »

BE’LAKOR: “OF BREATH AND BONE”

Album Reviews 6 Responses »

May 092012

(Our UK-based writer Andy Synn reviews the highly anticipated new album by Australia’s Be’lakor.)

Be’lakor have become, it seems to me, immune to criticism in the underground press. I say this to let you know that this isn’t going to be a fawning, sycophantic review of the band’s latest album; I have tried my very best to stay impartial, even though the temptation was to simply love this album merely for its existence. That being said, while I have no major criticisms of the record (and have fallen head over heels in love with some of the tracks), I have come out of the experience with a few concerns preying on my mind.

Let’s get one thing straight first though, you’ve probably already formed your opinions that this is going to be good – hell, I’d wager that most people formed their opinion about the album without even hearing a single note – but the question is, how good?

To get the obvious comparisons out of the way, neither as heart-wrenchingly melancholic as recent Insomnium, nor as shamelessly audacious as latter-day Omnium Gatherum, the main criticism I can level at Of Breath and Bone is that while it is characteristically and distinctively a Be’lakor album (falling ultimately somewhere between The Frail Tide and Stone’s Reach), there is a certain spark missing from a few of the tracks, which impacts the experience of the record as a whole.

More restrained and perhaps a more consciously considered record than its predecessor, this factor is both a blessing and a curse for the band. It allows their multi-layered melodies room to breathe and expand, but softens the impact of some of their more fiery moments. At their most epic and nuanced, this restraint works wonders, allowing the band to express their melodic palette fully, yet at their most aggressive this often serves, paradoxically, to limit their full expression. Fundamentally the album is very much a companion piece to Stone’s Reach, introverted where that album was extroverted, restrained where it was unfettered. Continue reading »

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