Martin: A good story usually takes an unexpected turn to keep things interesting. Is there anything more appealing to a storyteller than to keep the audience at the edge of their seats? Well, in that case No Colours Records haven't been great storytellers so far, because for many years they have been churning out more or less the same kind of primitive black metal. Having taken a bit of a turn towards the suidicidal/despressive end of the black metal scale, the label's signing Be Persecuted is, yet again, regurgitating a certain Varg Vikernes' ideas.
There is a slight difference between other bands on the same label though, since Be Persecuted's second album, 'End Leaving', echoes less 'Filosofem' than one would expect, instead focusing on Burzum's sound during the days of the debut album, e.g. fast to mid tempo, primitive black metal within the confines of what one could call a normal song structure, albeit with a certain amount of atmosphere. This more or less explains the whole flow of this six song, thirty five minute album. The production is of an exceptional bedroom standard, with shitloads of distortion over fairly incompetent vocals, an overall lack of bass presence in the mix and a drum computer that is still partying like it's 1979. The songs show some hints of competence, but some of the riffs sound either overly familiar or awkwardly pedestrian. In short, nothing unusual here.
And now for the curveball: this trio hails from Jiangxi, China... Didn't see that one coming, did you? Neither did I, until five minutes before I started writing this review. Since 'End Leaving' is, at face value, simply one of many bedroom black metal releases, there is hardly any reason why one should prefer this album over any other. In fact, it is wisdom to restrict oneself to the very best releases in the genre only and steer clear of the thirteen in a dozen stuff. Nevertheless it can be argued that Be Persecuted do have some additional charm due to the obscurity of Chinese black metal. Moreover, it does lend them a certain underdog credibility because it is without a doubt a lot more complicated to make black metal in a country where freedom of speech is anything but commonplace...
As such, I have been slightly less harsh on this band than I would be if they were from, let's say, Russia (bad example, considering the whole 'freedom of speech' point!). Nevertheless, a rating says absolutely nothing in cases like this, because whether one would like to support a band that is probably sensational in terms of their origins but rather inconspicuous, if not sub-standard, in these parts of the world, is an individual decision.
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