Bethlehem

Description

In response to popular demand, Bethlehem are releasing their eponymous 2016 album for the first time on clear vinyl in June. The highly acclaimed album will be released as a gatefold on 180 g, very limited, red vinyl (200 copies). ‘Bethlehem’ is a rejuvenating cure on all fronts. Co-founder and mastermind Jürgen Bartsch grabbed the proverbial bull by its horns and took things into his own skilful hands when the band that originally recorded the 2014 album ‘Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia’ broke up. After the return of the long-time drummer, Wolz, Bartsch recruited Russian guitarist Karzov (who played an important role in the songwriting for ‘Bethlehem’) as well as a new singer – none other than Onielar from the German black metal band Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult. Orielar’s insane vocals only add to the psychotic morbidity of ‘Bethlehem’, an album which offers a different approach to the Bethlehem sound of the mid- to late 90s and but remains “as anarchical as ever”, according to Bartsch. At the bottom line, ‘Bethlehem’ embodies everything for which the ancestors of the dark metal genre stand and combines the band’s early hard sound with a distinct catchiness and playful sense of experimentation which have always been Bethlehem's trademark. All of this is completed by production quality which achieves the perfect balance between rawness and power. Bethlehem's ninth studio LP is a ‘Symphony of Sickness’ in the truest sense of the word. Read more