I remember reading good things about this band's demo tape, along with Forlorn and this I believe is a side project of theirs, but alas I never got around to buying either of those demos, although I found out I like both bands now. Withered Beauty is straightforward old school Swedish death metal mixed with some of the more melodic newer Swedish death metal, similar to the manner which Dismember had fused the two on their "Death Metal" album. It occasionally slips into some elements that don't fit this overall impression, some quite symphonic progressive type of stuff and occasionally it also slips into the aesthetics of Swedish black metal, and all is done quite well on their own, but as a melange it is far more dubious. It is quite odd going from some quite typical death metal bang your head riffs, and then just jump into something that could seem to be a left over riff from Forlorn, mid-paced melodic with some choir song over it. As a whole this album is either great but with big flaws, or just not quite thoroughly developed and thus not to good, it all depends on how much you importance you give the structures. I am sure that this band by working a bit on their composition style, could develop into something quite great, and this album is enjoyable enough for now, although it isn't really a new one, so perhaps they have made a newer release in the meantime?

© 2000 sharund