...from a Bleeding Heart

The recently disbanded Gothic metal band Beseech had quite a successful career behind their backs. After quite some active time, they finally had their breakthrough with the album “Souls Highway”.

Sadly, barely anyone remembers the time before their commercial breakthrough, especially their debut album “…From a Bleeding Heart”, which is dramatically underrated.

This album had quite a different line-up than their later works, but it does work better in the humble opinion of this reviewer.

Jörgen Sjöberg’s vocal delivery is very deep and pleasing to the ears. In his deepest moments, he tends to sound a bit like Peter Steele, who’s probably my favourite Gothic-style singer. Jörgen might not have the greatest range, but he knows what he is capable of and therefore he uses his ability in the best possible way.

“…From a Bleeding Heart” is also the only Beseech album with a strong doom metal influence. Some of the riffing here owes far more to that genre than to the gothic style of later Beseech albums. The best riffs can be found in “In Her Arms” and “Silverstar” – the former features awesome melancholic lead guitar work, while the latter relies on an aggressive and straightforward riff delivery.

Yes, this album shines in the songwriting and vocal department, but the riffs do sometimes lack that extra bit of heaviness to make this album a masterpiece. I’d have loved to hear more riffs in the vein of “Silverstar” or “Rainbowman” since they are simply great doom-styled riffs in the vein of Type O’ Negative or modern Candlemass.

The amount of work that was put into this album is tremendous. If you remember, this is a debut by a young band, yet it has real violins, cellos, flutes and female guest vocals. Surely a very expensive effort and the band must have put blood, sweat and tears into it – a shame that it is still so underrated today.

I recommend this album to all fans of doom, gothic or heavy metal, since it’s a great display of talent, devotion and creativity.