Be'lakor's Of Breath and Bone takes a little while to grow on you. On the first few listens, it's difficult to really grasp what each song is presenting due to their length. Unlike their melodeath contemporaries, Be'lakor shoot for the stars on each song and try to convey a much larger picture. While long songs and repetitive ideas might get boring in other contexts, it works here pretty well.
What you need to know about this album is simple; there is absolutely no filler despite songs ranging between seven and nine minutes. Every minute is filled with melodious, beautiful, angry, syncopated metal that brings harmonies just as much as it does unbelievably heavy music. The production on the record is easily the best they've had thus far too, with a dense sound that's full rather than clunky. The only real issue with the album is that keyboardist Steven Merry seems to have been turned right the hell down in the mix. The album doesn't suffer to the point of being unenjoyable, but it's more of an aside that Merry should've been brought up a little more.
Overall, this album points out how much Be'lakor have really matured over their career, going from simply "just melodeath" to something that's dark and mature with Of Breath and Bone.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYBgWgjjgxQ[/youtube]
