Dan Brooklyn (or Daan van Breukelen) is a solo Dutch artist who brought out his debut album, The Great Beast, on December 1st.
The album follows the life and teachings of one of the more controversial occult leaders, Aleister Crowley, who founded the religion of Thelema. While Aleister never described himself as a Satanist, he did call himself “the Beast 666” and didn’t follow regular Christian ideals.
Practices within the faith required believers to engage in acts of self-mutilation and drug use and act with an unusual sexual link.
Dan Brooklyn is also the drummer for the band Selfmachine, a modern metal band from the Netherlands. This album was produced by Caleb Bingham (Nightmare Sound, Five Finger Death Punch, Athanasia) and mastered by Hakan Akesson (Deathstars, Dissection). Dan has listed Mr Crowley as a fellow songwriter in his songs.
The album release date was no coincidence as it was the 75th anniversary of Aleister Crowley’s death. His first single, “Liber XLIV (The Mass of the Phoenix)”, was released on the Aleister Crowleys 147th birthday.
To open the album, we have numbers read out in an odd cadence. The significance of these is not to know to me, but perhaps it means something to those in the know. At least the next track then kicks in with vigour and dramatic flare with the operatic style melodic metal track named after Mr Crowley’s house next to Loch Ness in Scotland, “Boleskine House”. It would’ve been great to open with this track rather than the 1:30 track before that.
The short vocal interlude tracks are common enough in bands that are trying to add little gems to the album and provide texture to the story they are trying to tell.
There are a number of them on this album that do more to detract from the music than add more to it. There are 6 of these on the album totalling 3 minutes and 40 seconds, excluding whatever small pieces are in the songs themselves.
Influences from various melodic and industrial metal styles can be heard, such as Rammstein and Deathstars. He manages to achieve a solid guitar tone that has some real crunch behind it. Layers of music have been added to provide a solid album. “The Great Beast” claws at our ears with some epic guitar work. Vocals vary from a growly talking style to a yowling style that seems to have come from a disturbed inner place. In “Chamber of nightmares” he seems to draw on vocal inspiration from black metal such as Cradle of Filth.
Some of the grooviest guitars with a head-banging effect are in “The Equinox of the Gods”. It starts off with some form of chanting before ripping into the guitar that can only get your head bangin’.
“Liber XLIV (The Mass of the Phoenix)” is a ritual that one person performs themselves as they have to eat a Cake of Light whose ingredients will never make it possible to be sold commercially and are more controversial. The lyrics from the song are taken from the ritual rites themselves.
“Mr Crowley” is a cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s song featuring Rangy Rhoads on guitar. The single was released on what would’ve been Randy’s 66th birthday.
This is an album that is a solid performer that has everything you need in an album. The vocal interludes may fit in with how you feel about the album as it does add to the overall concept but might detract from the overall listening experience.
Tracks:
- 93 (The Dawn of the Enigma)
- Boleskine House
- The Power of Darkness is more than just a superstition
- The Midnight Flower Unfurls
- The Equinox of the Gods
- Droppings from the Host of Heaven
- The Great Beast
- The Most Powerful Being in the World
- Chamber of Nightmares
- Scattered Through the Galaxy like Grains of Sand
- Liber XLIV (The Mass of the Phoenix)
- The Poet
- Mr. Crowley
Dan Brooklyn: Facebook
Release Year: 2022
Label: self-released
Category: Album
Country: Netherlands
Reviewed by Byron Lotz
