The Belgian one man band LHAÄD releases its second black metal album Beneath in a little bit more than three years. Lykormas is the multi-instrumentalist behind this brutal and spellbinding at the same time underground project. We wonder sometimes if the man finds time to sleep, he is active in several other bands or projects of The Nox Entity Collective (Rituals of the Dead Hand, Entartung, Wolven and Nox which is an experimental electronic music project).
Lykormas is most known as the guitarist of the Belgian post-metal band Hemelbestormer. With the debut album Below (released on Babylon Doom Records) LHAÄD produced a suffocating black metal record inspired by the hadal zones (six to eleven thousand meters depth) of the oceans. On Beneath Lykormas continues to emanate his underwater journey of darkness where all kinds of murky creatures may wander around. The album has a hypnotic atmosphere without losing any of its cohesion.
We drown in mesmerising heavy guitar riffs and ferocious vocals supported by a machine gun like rhythm section (on the track ‘Beneath VI’ it really sounds like crossfire). Lykormas adds all kinds of electronic effects, atmospheric synths and samples to his song structures, which give Beneath a creepy and versatile sound palette.
Beneath is an excellent water, wind and fire erupting black metal volcano which we can only deeply recommend. Fans of bands like Sulphur Aeon, Nachtmysticum, Darkspace, Thorns and beyond need to dig this fascinating cosmic black metal work. We are playing Beneath almost continuously, LHAÄD rules in the dark and mysterious black metal ocean underworld.
