Список групп Death Metal Lecherous Nocturne Behold Almighty Doctrine

Lecherous Nocturne’s third album, Behold Almight Doctrine, has just been released after five years of absence and the reception is already some kind of mixed bag. The South Carolina band often compared to Hate Eternal on their two previous recordings has been plagued with constant line-up changes and it’s actually no surprise that we had to wait this long for new songs to come out. No surprise either that Behold Almighty Doctrine doesn’t quite follow the footsteps of its predecessors either.

With The Age of the Miracles has Passed, many fans of the Brutal Death Metal scene had rated Lecherous Noctune as a solid contender for the crème de la crème in the genre. Debut and sophomore albums were viewed in high esteem and many expected Behold Almighty Doctrine to actually go beyond that and eventually give birth to what would be a milestone in the band’s career. In other words, the first two recordings had shown outstanding potential and this third record was supposed to be the crowning achievement of Lecherous Nocturne, the one album to rule them all and have the band’s status go up from pretenders to kings alongside Hate Eternal, Nile or Krisiun.

The verdict is not an easy one though. As written earlier, the response from the fans is already a mixed bag. Some will argue that the band, though still brutal in essence, lost some of its verve. With tracks like Bring the Void or Judgements and Curses which are heavy and fast as fuck, you get exactly what you’d expect from the band but others like Lesions from Vicious Plague or Creation Continuum also feature breaks and slower parts. I personally think that such “breathers” actually add more to Lecherous Nocturne’s music than it takes away from it.

Behold Almighty Doctrine may not be the riff-fest that the previous albums were. Where the band was formerly a one-way-ticket to hell at high speed, there are more stops that add to the overall grim atmosphere. Intro and outro will give you the creeps and the piano interlude (Prelude N. 2) provides a general horror feeling. There is on Behold Almighty Doctrine a sense of ominous feeling, of impending doom, as if something or someone lying hidden is waiting patiently ready to devour you. And this emphasis on atmosphere is, according to me, a welcome addition.

Obviously, fans that were waiting for an even more brutal version of the previous albums will be (and already are) disappointed because Behold Almighty Doctrine does not surpass in brutality its elders. Some will also complain that Jason Hohenstein was doing a better job on vocals than Lollis but I won’t even dare trying to tell which one is better. That’s certainly cause to add insult to injury for previous fans as the album seems to be subpar compared to past releases.

The main concern on Behold Almighty Doctrine is – besides a very ugly cover art (that’s no Dan Seagrave here, haha) – like on previous albums, its very short duration. 27 minutes, with intro, interlude and outro, is definitely not much and this gives more arguments to people not liking the record since we basically had to wait 5 years for something like 23 minutes of music. I actually enjoy these 23 minutes but am too a bit concerned about how short this is and how come they couldn’t come with more material in this span of time.

Overall, I think this is a solid record. Brutal Death Metal that is not afraid of experimenting with atmospheres is almost en endangered species in these days and I’m glad that Lecherous Nocturne gave it a try, if just for one album. I will look forward to hearing their new material with delight but unfortunately cannot guarantee that they won’t lose some of their former fans along the way.