Friday, March 20, 2020

Beseech - "Souls Highway" [2002]

Artist: Beseech
Title: Souls Highway
Genre: Gothic Metal
Country: Sweden
Year: 2002

Track List:
  1. Illusionate
  2. Between the Lines
  3. Souls Highway
  4. Blinded
  5. Endless Waters
  6. Fiction City
  7. Sunset 28
  8. A Last Farewell
  9. A Season in Green
  10. Beyond the Skies 
Another gothic metal album with dual male/female vocals, which is surprisingly little known despite having a somewhat classic status in the history of gothic metal by now. I've bought this album on a cassette quite a long time ago and was very much impressed by how atmospheric it is. Later I checked out the rest of Beseech discography (until 2006), but no their album has impressed me as much as this one. I've seen reviewers comparing it to early Lacuna Coil and even to Infinite Tales, but Beseech definitely doesn't sound like any of these bands. "Souls Highway" isn't particularly heavy or sophisticated in terms of musicianship, but the atmosphere is great - very melancholic and soothing - and I love the vocals by Lotta Höglin too. My personal favourites are "Between the Lines" and "Fiction City". My cassette also included a bonus track which is a very good cover version of ABBA's "Gimme Gimme Gimme" (if I haven't heard the original before, I'd think it was originally written as a metal song).



P.S. I know that Beseech have split up in 2006 and some of their former members went on forming The Mary Major and Those We Don't Speak Of (both bands nowhere near successful as Beseech), by I didn't know until recently that they have reformed in 2012 and released a fairly good new album in 2016. Their new vocalist is Angelina Sahlgren Söder which apparently has experience in theatre and musicals as well:

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