Published: December 24, 2024

Next up from the stack of CD’s Hypnotic Dirge sent me is the lone album that New York’s Inherus has put out thus far. “Beholden” took me a few listens to get into, but when it clicked, it clicked well.

Note: I’m not a fan of almost all Doom. I grew up a lover of Thrash, Punk and Death Metal, so the speedier the better. Even the older Doom Bands I love are speedy themselves, Like Candlemass. I like My Dying Bride, Saturnus and a few more. Not many. As I have aged and especially since I have gotten back into reviewing albums, I noticed myself liking Doom Metal more and even giving good ratings to (Gasp!) some Funeral Doom albums. Tastes change, I guess. And the newer Doom bands inject a lot of unique ideas into their music. Inherus defines themselves as Doom/Post-Metal. To me, they sound like Doom with some Death/Black Metal vocals. More on vocals later! Very rarely fast paced, “Beholden” runs from slow to mid paced in speed and it is almost a mesmerizing style of Metal that relaxes me. What makes them unique are the “post” elements which have a lot of almost acoustic or at least non-distorted breakdowns and some amazing musicianship. “Post” is a sound to me, but it’s hard for me to explain what that sound is. Every member is great at what they do here, but man, the bass really shines through.

The vocals are mostly female and sung in a beautiful clean way. Beth Gladding found a way to sing Doom without putting me to sleep! Lol. There are some male Death/Black Metal vocals here and there and they are well done too. The lyrics are well-written and seem to revolve around lost love and longing.

“Beholden” has a great sound due to a great mixing and mastering job by Mike Uscifer. It’s perfect for this music.

The cover art shows a cloaked woman riding an Elk through a forest. Her hood is on fire. Someone needs to tell her about stop, drop and roll! It’s done in shades of purple and black and is pretty damn cool. Great work, David Paul Seymour! The panels on the inside of the digipak have all of the lyrics, a band photo and album info.

I hope to hear new music from Inherus soon as “Beholden” is an album I should not like but actually love.