Hometown: Manchester.
The lineup: Chris Sykes (vocals, guitars), Eddie Johnson (guitars), Benjamin Edwards (bass), Paddy Monaghan (drums).
The background: We pride ourselves on bringing you a variety of music in this column but we felt distinctly chastened recently when it was pointed out we hadn't written about any progressive death metal for a while, if ever. Shame on us. So here we are introducing Betraeus, Mancunian new(ishly) formed exponents of said genre (also known as technical death metal, tech death or prog death, apparently), and a boon for any readers out there who already own albums by outfits with names – and we're not making these up – such as Cryptopsy, Edge of Sanity and Sadist.
Funnily, or progressively, enough, if you liked Monday's new band, Three Trapped Tigers, you might not be as averse to this lot as you might fear – and of course trepidation and dread before music of this kind is only natural, its reputation for intensity, and immensity, preceding it. The benefit of not being overly familiar with this type of endeavour is that, as with TTT, they seem immediately impressive in their heavy intricacy. They could be average at this sort of thing to insiders for all we know, but they sound extraordinarily proficient to our ears, which are unaccustomed to such ferocious displays of playing technique. On the title track of their debut EP, Towards the Sun, Betraeus – all around 20 years old – demonstrate their capacity for complexity from the word "go" (actually the first words, after a lengthy instrumental intro, are a suitably apocalyptic "the time has come for me to leave this place"). The track seems to start mid-song, with its spiralling lead guitar figure over typical threshing/thrashing rhythm guitar and climactic drums. They are clearly possessed of an ability to play very well indeed. In fact, they sound possessed.
The frontman certainly does – he employs that bowel-deep mode of gruff vomit-singing you will recognise from Napalm Death et al, one known as the "death growl", which has its own entry on Wikipedia, explaining its genealogy and possible side effects if overused. There's even a YouTube tutorial as to how to safely achieve it, so good luck with that if you fancy sounding Satanic, or at least like that narrow conception of Satan, one beloved of metal bands, as a gravel-voiced baddie with horns, a pitchfork, a pointy tail and shiny red skin. We think Betraeus are less simplistic than that. Perhaps because of their name ("betray-us", intimating that betrayal is the worst sin), there would appear to be a moral dimension to their work, one in keeping with the sense of medieval rectitude that pervades some areas of the metal universe.
It's not all sheer hard attack. Sure, Frustrate Recluse is like being blowtorched in the face by a gorgon. But Blossom Into the Void is – whisper it – a ballad, which devil boy (Chris Sykes) croons like a regular pleading troubadour. It's quite a disappointment, considering we assumed they were going to be no-holds-barred uncompromising and extreme, and to learn that the band have feelings – other than black, negative ones – they need to express. Fortunately, the remaining two tracks on the EP, Obsolete and Locust, recorded live at last year's Bloodstock festival, are bludgeoning business as usual, although we feel duty-bound to report an awareness of the Metallica and Anthrax catalogues might diminish their impact.[source]
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