Mixing diverse aspects of the gothic scene is nothing new. Industrial and metal have been married for years thanks to the likes of Ministry et al. Beseech’s Drama album is not as much a marriage of metal and industrial but a union of metal and gothic rock with some touches of industrial. This album is gothic to the core and a great listen.

Each song is quite unique bearing only cursory resemblance to other songs on the album at times. The beautiful vocal dichotomy of male and female vocals is evoked here as well. This borders into Lacuna Coil territory at times but overall there is little overlap. Male singer Eric Molarin has a great and unique voice. Many influences running the gamut from Peter Steele to Nick Cave to Lord Byron appear in his vocals. He does some death vocals at parts as well. Lotte Höglin, the female vocalist does reflect some of Cristina Scabbia’s tone however she can sound thinner when holding notes compared to the Italian diva. The music is interesting. At times it can be straight up gothic rock with no electronic influence while at other times it can be electrified to hell with synthetic drums and thick keyboard melodies.

Songs like “Higher Level” are great for their use of the dueling vocals. The up-tempo nature of this song allows for great riffing and flow as well. “Voices” sounds like a Type O Negative song that was left off of October Rust. Molarin does a wonderful emulation of Peter Steele here. The music is simplistic but catchy and fun. The use of keyboards and samples also elevate this song into a trippy dream world where anything is possible. “Forever Falling” is a complete departure and resembles Opeth’s Damnation album more than anything else on the record. The strange keyboard usage and guitar work could make this a video game soundtrack sans vocals. On this song Höglin does sound like Scabbia once more drawing more comparisons. I think she could find her own voice easily instead of trying to copy what is popular in the metal scene and mainstream scene (Evanescence anyone?). “Bitch” on the other hand is yet another departure entering the realm of Moonspell and darker music.

I think “Addicted” has to be the most deviant song on the album. They have left the realm of metal entirely and entered territory that bands like VNV Nation and Wumpscut explore. There is so much synth on this track it looses a little bit of charm. Höglin’s vocal range is not quite adequate for this song and you can hear her holding back on several of the lower and higher notes. This kind of disappointed me since I liked the direction of the male vocals and detuned guitar driven choruses. “Come on In” and “Friend Emptiness” again hearken towards the title track and traditional gothic rock. I think Beseech has crafted a very unique album. With minor tweaking of the vocals, particularly the female vocals and using less synth this could have been a masterwork. Surely any song on this album is befitting of the seminal dark/gothic album which is the soundtrack to the first Crow movie. This in itself is probably one of the highest compliments I can award an album of this caliber.