Today, oceanic black metallers Lhaäd stream the entirety of their highly anticipated second album, Beneath. Set for international release on March 20th via Amor Fati Productions in conspiracy with Extraconscious Records, hear Lhaäd‘s Beneath in its entirety here:
Hailing from the currently thriving Belgian black metal scene, Lhaäd are a part of the esteemed Nox Entity collective, which also includes the likes of Entartung, Rituals of the Dead Hand, and Wolven. To begin to understand Lhaäd, one must dissect the band’s phonetically & visually unique moniker: an anagram of “hadal.” The hadal zone, also known as the hadopelagic zone, is the deepest region of the ocean, lying within oceanic trenches. The name comes from Hades, the ancient Greek god of the underworld. Fittingly, Lhaäd bring the same, incredibly vast darkness & tension as if they were to capture and take you to the ocean floor, deep within the largest abysses.
Such was the sound of the band’s 2021 debut album, Below, and now Lhaäd go impossibly deeper & darker with the follow-up Beneath. The band’s framework of martial/cosmic hypnosis is well and accounted for – namely, classic Thorns and Darkspace – but mainman Lykormas here evinces an engaging, almost-ceremonial aspect that brings forth ominous beauty to the no-doubt-dark deluge; perhaps one could make a parallel in this respect to his post-metal titans Hemelbestormer. Tempos thus span the slower end of the spectrum – trudging, ominous, HUGE – as frequently as the ultraviolent, altogether making for a slipstream that’s deceptively melodic and even tragically blissful. Too, the aquatic element is even more pronounced on Below, as cold & caustic riffs undulate and overlap like currents of the ocean, seemingly infinite in possibility but always with the portent of everlasting darkness.
True to its title, Beneath is a six-song/40-minute experience of going under the Below. Lhaäd plays hadopelagic black metal exclusively!
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Lhaäd’s Beneath
1. Beneath I [5:57]
2. Beneath II [7:18]
3. Beneath III [7:21]
4. Beneath IV [5:24]
5. Beneath V [6:20]
6. Beneath VI [7:39]
MORE INFO:
www.thenoxentity.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/thenoxentity
www.amor-fati-productions.de
www.amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/amorfatiprod