I downloaded one of this band's new tunes and wasn't impressed. However, this disc came my way. A bit reluctantly I put it in the CD-player. I can't say when - from the start or after listening to it a few times - but I started liking this record. Beloved knows how to combine brutal hardcore with melodic outings, creating various sounds. Vocally the raw shouted parts are really attractive. The variation of hard and mellow parts as well, like in Death To Traitors. Some transitions from brutal hardcore to the melodic aren't as smooth as they could be, though. A song like Watching The Lines Blur starts like a classic U2 song. Fortunately there are also some up-tempo passages. So, the overall experience is a nice one, after all.
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2003Reviewed by Ryan LittleDo heavy melodic guitars, a pounding double-kick beat, and the perfect mix of modern-rock singing and hardcore screaming vocals sound familiar? Maybe that's because they are. The physical description of Beloved's music looks identical to the likes of Further Seems Forever, Dead Poetic, Underoath, and newer Blindside-type bands. This emo-screamo melodic hardcore-type music is most definitely up…Similar sounding releases
2005Haste the DayWhen Everything Falls
2005ExtolThe Blueprint Dives
2005Day of ContemptThe Will to Live
2004AtreyuThe Curse
2004Eighteen VisionsObsession
2002P.O.D.Satellite
