The Belonging Demo Reviews:

Esoterica Zine:
You might remember me making appreciative noises when I caught The Belonging live with Solace Denied a few months back, since they managed to perk my interest up far beyond the usual levels it reaches at gigs of unsigned bands. My main complaint as I recall was the apparently total lack of structure of their material, which made it difficult for the band to really engage with the audience, despite the deep appreciation they managed to generate - given time to really digest the songs on CD, though, this is, predictably perhaps, much less of an issue.
What's hearteningly evident from the outset is that The Belonging have a quality many lesser bands don't - they can actually play their instruments. Sometimes it can be a chore being obliged to listen to yet another blob of that agglomeration of styles that is "demo metal", but The Belonging's own frantically energetic and melodic take on blackened death metal (note: not death/black/doom/thrash/power/drum'n'bass metal) has me scratching my head thinking of references. Plenty of the riffs remind me of things, but having listened to the demo so many I'm beginning to wonder if they're actually reminding me of themselves, no small achievement given the sheer number of riffs crammed into each song. What really marks The Belonging out amongst their peers is, I think, this: whereas many young bands are so in awe of their favourite metal artists that they try too hard to be like them and end up sounding like poor copies, these fine gentleman have absorbed ideas from many sources and come out with something filtered through their own consciousnesses and talents, resulting in that all too rare treasure, a unique sound. If your grandmother ever used to save slivers of soap from almost-finished soap bars and press them all together to make a completely new
bar, you might have some idea of what I'm talking about. But The Belonging aren't going to escape being whinged at. I know they spent a great deal of time and effort recording these three songs (and the sound is reasonable for a demo), but there are some features of the sound job conspicuous by their absence; the harsh vocals are presented entirely au naturel, which doesn't appeal to me at all. Since, in my humble opinion, the greatest metal singers are the early-90s incarnations of the likes of Matti Kärki and LG Petrov, I actually need to hear at least a little reverb on death metal vocals. Having said that, the clean vocals are nice and chesty, sung with skill and conviction - another rarity these days. It's an honour to report on a band more interested in ploughing their own furrow than half-heartedly churning out Metallica ripoffs. Seek this recording out, and remember you saw it here first.


live4metal Zine
Now this west Yorkshire four piece have a noticeable talent for honing quality Black Metal in the vein of Dissection and Satyricon. Add a huge slab of individual flair and what you get is some very well written and arranged songs that really do put many of the British contingent to shame. There are no Cradle comparisons or blatant tired formulas being revamped. Of the three tracks on air here I am hard pressed to pluck a favourite as they are all arse kicking ball blasters that duck and dive between intricate guitar riffs and varied drum-work. There are clever slower sections and the band make good use of harsh and cleaner vocals to induce atmosphere when needed. It should be noted that in the over all picture this band may have trouble getting noticed but from a British perspective labels should take note. The time for a cohesive British Black Metal scene is dawning just like I predicted many moons ago.