Artist: Bezdan
Country: Croatia
Label: I Hate Records
Formats: LP / CD
Year: 2025
Although the band’s roots go as deep as 2009, ‘Upon The Altar’ is only Bezdan’s first full-length album. The first years of their existence the band went under the name of Desecrator, eventually changing the name to Bezdan which is Croatian for “Abyss”. Yet, even after changing the name to something more original not much happened in terms of releases. In 2014, a digital demo was published (reissued on cassette a year later), and in 2017, a 7″ EP was released via the small and relatively inactive label Mantratya Productions from Luxembourg, but that was about it. But, as they say, good things don’t grow overnight and can’t be pressured by time. Just when you least expected it, the band suddenly returned with a record deal with Swedish label I Hate Records. ‘Upon The Altar’ is the first result of their collaboration.
The years in between the band’s first releases and this debut album has been good for Bezdan. While that first demo and especially the 7” EP have their charm and unmistakably served their purpose, ‘Upon The Altar’ is a completely different beast. Not that this album has anything new to offer compared to the earlier material, on the contrary I would say, the band’s penchant for all things sounding old seems to have only deepened, but the quality of both the song writing and the production has increased tremendously.
“All things sounding old” might be a bit of a hollow concept, Bezdan expertly fills it with all the best things from the 80’s that’s more extreme than everything that operated along the lines of Iron Maiden or Judas Priest. The majority of Bezdan’s music is clearly rooted in the thrashing Death Metal tradition of the 80s with more than a few kind nods to bands like Sepultura, Kreator, Destruction, Slayer and, most evidently, Possessed. But besides these more straight-forward and slightly obvious bands, there’s also some hints of a bit more intricate sort of song crafting that feels close to 80s Death or especially Morbid Angel. Listen to ‘Dark Messiah’ or the album’s closing track ‘Crypts Of Ancient’, it is hard to deny the presence of Morbid Angel. If you intend to cause harm, you can even say that the otherworldly thrashing riffs, the blazing drums and most importantly the wild vocals and overall atmosphere are almost completely ripping off ‘Altars Of Madness’. But if you’re as cheerful as I am, then this is simply an unparalleled tribute to the Tampa giants.
As a whole, ‘Upon The Altar’ is an album that will not change the world or the way you look at Extreme Metal, but if you’ve still not grown tired of the Slayer (gotta love those falsettos here and there), Morbid Angel or Possessed, then this is another great addition to your ever-growing record collection that ignores everything that happened after the 1980s.
