Besieged - Violence Beyond All Reason
• album review •

BESIEGED have returned from the metal cosmos with “Violence Beyond All Reason” and it’s been worth the wait. Their signature biting stomp that combines death metal severity with old-school thrash energy is intact. It’s like their 2005 debut never went away, save for some noticeable growth in songwriting and musicianship.

This record is heavy, dark, aggressive, and yet somehow infused with a sense of melody. It doesn’t take long to figure out that BESIEGED know what they are doing when it comes to writing death metal. And nowhere is this more obvious than the expert mix of furious shredding contrasted against some sickening bass lines.

“Violence Beyond All Reason” is a collection of technically complex, thrash-tinged death metal that sneaks in melody without neglecting brutality. There’s an impressive amount of riff diversity too - from aggressive palm-muting to catchy hooks and grooves to guitar wankery that brings out their homage to Sepultura, as we mentioned before. The one issue BESIEGED have is a tendency to repeat themselves; most songs follow a similar structure and rely on repeated riffs for their full duration. It works well for about half the album - almost every song has some excellent riffs and features that go over 3 minutes - but it gets tedious near the end.

”Path to Defy” is a ferocious slice of death metal, a brief yet blisteringly over-the-top burst that showcases the band’s incredible riffing skills and some flat-out crazy drumming. The follow-up cut of “One World Coma” continues in this same vein, ramping it all up to warp speed as it careens into all sorts of throwbacks to their classic material before it plunges into a crazy stop-start twist and then eventually unravels until we get to the headbanging groove at its core.

Watch below 'Testaments', the ending piece of the album, a masterfully blending of blackened death and thrash metal that delivers both raw energy and devastating composition, characterized by aggressive and raw songwriting that is reminiscent of 90's thrash-death.

BESIEGED is still at their best when they’re in mid-tempo, moody groove. That’s what the band was always known for, and it’s been that way since the first EP all those years ago. “Violence Beyond All Reason” showcases this consistently with solid songwriting from start to finish. The pacing helps these technical moments stick out more as they arise, but they never alienate themselves from feeling like a power thrash band.