Belial

[Conservationist]

Why did this Finnish black metal band never get the exposure needed?

Their music is like a really simple version of Immortal with a primitive death metal heaviness, like Morpheus Descends. It's melodic however.

True, distribution of their two EPs was terrible and they soon broke up, or broke up after their guitarists bailed to Mythos and Impaled Nazarene.

But still... why no interest?

http://www.anus.com/metal/belial

[Umbrage]

Well, their demos and debut EP were all occult themed. But their full-length "Never Again" saw their style stripped from that. They also began incorporating different musical elements and approaches, starting to show tendencies for simple rock music. Their last album is gothic grunge rock, not at all like their previous works. Going down this road probably helped former fans turn their backs on them. Changing your image with each album just doesn't work very well in metal.

Regardless of their later mistakes Wisdom Of Darkness is still a great classic, in a way I like it better than Impaled Nazarene because it doesn't incorporate joke tracks.

[Devamitra]

Why did this Finnish black metal band never get the exposure needed?

Did anyone? You would be surprised how few people even remember Demigod... and in black metal (cf. Beherit), for mostly image-related reasons, exposure was negative back in the day.

I think they could have been another Amorphis or Sentenced with the "Never Again" material, but suffice to say: Lethal Records. Some bands made their own promotion and connections to the global underground but that required language skills, diligence, a "clerical" sort of attitude in general which many of these drunks and scoundrels didn't possess.

But I know disconnected occasions of Belial logo famously appearing in abandoned houses of Finnish suburbs, so it may be safe to say that private worship always celebrated this cult!

[Ildjicide]

According to metal archives, "Wisdom of Darkness" was re-released with an alternate cover. Does anyone know when this happened, which label reissued it and what the cover looks like?

[Umbrage]

Does anyone know ... what the cover looks like?

http://www.anus.com/metal/belial/

Duh

[Ildjicide]

Does anyone know ... what the cover looks like?

http://www.anus.com/metal/belial/

Duh

Right, most likely the first issue was on Lethal in 1992 with the cover they have on MA and the reissue is the same year, on the same label with the cover shown in DLA. I was hoping someone here knew for a fact how it went down, because I could not find the complete information anywhere else.

[Umbrage]

http://cgi.ebay.com.my/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140322614856

page 1 result 9 of google search for "belial wisdom of darkness"

I'm feeling like a jackass so I'm going to try to rattle your brains some more by posting this:

http://www.nucleart.org/images/kannet/belial_lp.jpg

Please excuse my trolling though, it's Sunday, it's raining, etc.

[we hope you die]

Just check metal archives, its prety reliabel for trivia on a given release.

[NecronomiconMortis]

[baxter]

http://www.nucleart.org/images/kannet/belial_lp.jpg

I never knew it had a rerelease, must have missed the news.  I don't like the artwork at all.

[Umbrage]

It hasn't been re-released yet. It's planned for 2009, vinyl only it seems:
http://www.grievantee.com/releases.php


Apparently you can still buy the second edition CD here:
http://www.evilmusic.com/reviews/belial/192.html

[TheUnborn]

Belial, lovely band indeed.

[Perennial_Man]

Belial the Lord is interesting. How the band portray Wisdom of Darkness with Belial as Lord alongside the rise of humanity, Hekate portrayed with a sword, a plate, a jug, torch, and snakes right here see, and finally Christ's corruption by who knows what. I read somewhere that Christ agrees with Satan. I don't remember it's context. I don't think of Christ much (cause I certainly ain't fucking Christ or his offspring), but I try not to think of him as being humanist and expecting every little person to get to heaven.

Sounds evil music.

[aquarius]

I revisited Wisdom of Darkness recently and it's a very impressive effort. Though easily overlooked due to wimping out on their full length, this band could easily have represented the missing link between Beherit and Impaled Nazarene.

[David_Brent]

Belial - Wisdom of darkness/Live in finland version should be out now.