Beatrix - Deathsent Ceremony

When black metal and thrash are married together in a Tampere fashion, the result is Beatrix. This time, though, it would be more accurate to talk about thrash/black rather than black/thrash, because despite the snarling vocals, thrash is clearly the driving force behind this five-piece. The fact that its quality happens to be darker doesn’t really make it all that black metal-oriented.

Deathsent Ceremony is a four-track MCD and the band’s first “proper” release. Before this, they had only put out demos and split releases. At least you can’t accuse them of rushing things: the band was formed in 2019, and this record arrived six years later. They still don’t have a full-length under their belt. And perhaps that’s for the best, as it makes more sense to polish the material before committing to an album.

Deathsent Ceremony clocks in at just 15 minutes, but even in that short time, Beatrix makes it clear that they know their style. The tempo isn’t particularly fast, although the performance is certainly energetic.

This is a fine nod to old-school thrash, where tight riffs were often the main priority and there was no need to underline everything with turbocharged tempos. If memory serves, Beatrix has been more ferocious live, but perhaps that’s simply the extra boost that comes with playing onstage.

In fact, this kind of approach suits Beatrix rather well, as the heavier headbanging material works better. The barking, snarling vocals do their job perfectly well within the genre. The same goes for the instrumentation, which practically begs you to raise your fist in the air.

The production is a little rough and slightly underpowered on the MCD, but by no means bad. The drums in particular suffer from somewhat inadequate miking. The guitars could also have used a little more punch.

These are ultimately minor flaws, though, because Deathsent Ceremony does exactly what it sets out to do without much fuss. It will be interesting to see what the eventual debut full-length sounds like and how well this approach works on a larger scale, whenever its time finally comes. Until then, we’ll make do with the EPs and MCDs.

Track list:
1. Deathsent Ceremony
2. Hatefed
3. Torment of the Soul
4. Zeraphine

Links:
https://beatrixblackthrash.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Beatrixblackthrash
https://www.instagram.com/beatrixblackthrash/
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Beatrix/3540498417