Beloved are a metal-influenced, melodic hardcore band. I realize those words alone might make some people not want to read this review, but I just thought I'd get it out in the open. Beloved are not a metalcore band or another carbon copy 'melodic hardcore' band. They are hardcore, with metal breakdowns and riffs, and a good bit of actual singing.

Now that's out of the way. Beloved starts the album out nicely with the song "Failure On My Lips". This song is pretty representative of the rest of the disc. It has a good bit of singing, and some screaming, and a little breakdown. The screaming isn't screamo screaming, more of a hardcore yell kind of thing, but not a metal yell.

They keep it going strong with the next couple of songs "Only Our Faces Hid" and "Rise and Fall". After that is my favorite song on the CD "Death to Traitors". This song has the right amount of singing and screaming to keep me satisfied. Not only that, it has an awesome breakdown towards the end of the song.

The whole album is good and and has the same feel to it without every song sounding the same. The vocalist is easily one of my favorite, and they have some nice lead guitar lines in there. The intro to Death to Traitors is a good example of the guitar work. Nothing stood out just amazingly with bass and drums, but then again I'm a guitarist. No complaints, just nothing stood out to me.

Any fans of hardcore should definitely pick this up. I don't like metal, and do get turned off by the terms "metalcore" or "metal-influenced"...but Beloved are different.

mp3's -- Beloved