Published: May 19, 2023

The first question – well, to be really truthful, maybe not the first, but one of the first – that pops up my mind when I get a new album to review is what contribution this band and this album are giving to Metal music. It’s such a natural question if one thinks the quantity of albums and bands we receive to be reviewed here everyday. I’d add that this is a very important question to decide which albums will be reviewed. So many albums, so little time, that’s really the matter. I guess that’s an inherent question to our job here as a kind of Metal music analyst. Maybe, just maybe, our job as a reviewer is to find that something amazing bands deliver us to spread the word. That’s just it. Quite a burden? No, not all. It depends on how one views it. Inherus’ “Beholden,” for instance, brings some details that make the band a little peculiar. It combines some Black Metal elements as the mesmerizing guitar riffings – Satyricon are a great reference -, the vocal duet with a harsher male voice and a female vocal with Prog Rock and Heavy Rock. The interesting thing is that the female vocal doesn’t use those operatic techniques being, let’s say, regular. A beautiful voice, though.

Inherus were formed in the summer of 2018 by Brian Harrigan and Anthony DiBlasi. Andrew Vogt joined the line-up shortly after and the foundations of what would become “Forgotten Kingdom” began to take shape. Beth Gladding became involved having moved to the area in the fall of that year, and upon hearing her contribution to the developing track, was auditioned and completed Inherus‘ line-up. Drawing inspiration from a broad range of musical and creative influences the quartet enjoys creatively blending multiple elements together to forge new sounds. Between home studios and live and isolated tracking, the band is now advancing through several singles and a sophomore full-length album.

“Beholden” is opened up by “Forgotten Kingdom” the track that addresses to Satyricon and which, I guess, tells much more from the album. From it my dear child of the night will get the aforementioned details that make Inherus peculiar as the band goes mixing some Heavy Rock elements to their Extreme Metal influences. Only this is by itself unique. Except for “Obliterated in the Face of Gods” all tracks are more than ten minutes of length. Fun fact is “Obliterated in the Face of Gods” has the longest tittle. There is also some Doom Metal in tracks as “Lie to the Angels” whose cadence is slow and shoegazed embelished by an ethereal 1970s keyboard. Yes, the kind of keyboard bands as Emerson, Lake, and Palmer loved to use. Well, after that remark it’s obvious that the album is full of Prog Rock references and they are the ones that give the album their different path. Beth Gladding’s voice give a Gothic Metal facet to the band and some glow as well.

“Beholden” is an album to appreciated with all its details and they are many. The band’s sonancy is remarkable due to the elements they’ve added to it. Pay close attention to the bass lines and how they are build up. Some people may call this post-metal, but I am very honest to say the post-metal bands I heard had nothing to do with Inherus and “Beholden.” This is much better.

Inherus “Beholden” will be released on May 26th via Hypnotic Dirge Records.

Reviewed by: Poleto