BELLA MORTE – Pearl Hunting – review

BELLA MORTE – Pearl Hunting – review
Wormholedeath

To Belarus, for some Pearl Hunting! Or rather, symphonic metal. But not to be confused with the American goth rockers from the nineties.

They’ve been around for ages, have Bella Morte, but this is only their second full-length album, following on from “Crime of Passion” in 2021. Don’t ask me if that’s any good. I have no idea. This, however, is very good.

There’s a lot of people involved on this record. As well as the core band of Belle Morte – vocals, Ilya Rogovoy and Ilya Petrashkevich – guitars, Sergey Butovsky – bass, Maria Shumanskaya – keyboards, and Rostislav Golubnichiy on drums, there are. Well, I kind of lost count about the 17 mark and couldn’t be bothered starting again.

Now that may seem like a lot, but they all bring something a little different to the table. Namely, 20 plus ethnic instruments performed by musicians from a dozen different countries, from most of the continents. If you want some Peruvian pan pipes with your metal, or a Mongolian mornin khuur, then this is where you need to be. I endorse this type of thing. I’ve always admired ambition in a band. If you shoot for the moon, there’s a chance you’re going to fail. But at least you made the effort.

Of course, everything really depends on the songs. You can have as many Armenian clarinet duduks as you want, but if I can’t hum the chorus, then to hell with you. Granted, not all the choruses are actually hummable, but the band never forget to put a dashed good melody in there.

After the intro is out of the way, it’s off into ‘Fallen Angel’, the first proper song. Ten years ago, the kids would have called it a ‘banger’. I don’t know what the current word is, but it’s a proper, full blooded symphonic metal tune. ‘Exorcism’ is where the assorted instrumentation starts to make itself known. And it does have a chorus you can hum.

They have a way of making their arrangements interesting, so when a song like ‘Blame Me’ starts off a bit ho-hum, they twist it around, and grab your attention. This is probably best exemplified on ‘September’, my current favourite, with its Midlle Eastern modals. Top tuneage. The closing, acoustic, revisit to ‘Exorcism’ does fall flat for me. I like my records to end with energy. But, that aside, there is very little, if anything, to find fault with here.

Aside from the conveyor belt of guests, the band themselves are tremendous. Excellent musicianship and vocals. An unexpected treat, this is your actual ‘banger’.

Belle Morte, symphonic metal band