BE’LAKOR – 13.09.2025 – Joliet, Illinois

VENUE: The Forge, Joliet, Illinois, United States
DATE: 13.09.2025
ORGANIZER: QRock and Forge Live
PHOTOGRAPHER: ER

On Saturday, September 13th, 2025, I, Eternal Terror’s U.S. resident reviewer-who wishes to be exclusively referred to as ER for the purpose, and in the commission of, all my publication-attended my first metal concert in over 18 years, along with my friend we will refer to as C. at his express request. The following is my report of the event as I recall it, not necessarily as it happened. To help the reader get a better sense of the first-hand experience, I use present tense throughout and past tense only for references prior to real time. It is my hope that the reader may feel as though they have been there, listening, hearing, living, breathing in the fumes of our passionate participation.

We arrive in Joliet, IL, a city I know pretty well, with 20 minutes to spare, pleasantly surprised with the convenient dirt-cheap parking space in the downtown three storied building. As we enter The Forge, we take note of the venue, simplicity and functionality, a bar, the restrooms to the left of the auditorium which resembles a theater, with giant loudspeakers seemingly threatening to pound you into oblivion with their sonic might, and the stage ahead, not too big, not too small, just right for what’s about to happen. C. orders us a round of the domestic Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, each at a price of a 12 pack of the same near my house. But, hey, that’s how venues, and ultimately bands, make their money so we’re more than happy to support them, but C. can’t help admonishing me with the cynical “savor that s@#t!” plea which I enthusiastically and peacefully oblige. We are ready but, apparently, not even techs are, although it’s about that time to open the proceedings (7 PM).

The techs seem to finally arrive, revealing themselves to be actually Christopher “Krystofer” Grimes (guitars, [apparently not live] keyboards), Joel Miller (bass) and Rick Hernandez (drums) from the first act of the evening, an intimidating looking melodic black, formerly black/gothic metal band Withering Soul, with a 26 year history and five albums, one of which albums, Passage Of The Arcane, released this year.

It turns out our fear is justified as Withering Soul opens up what ends up being the most crushing performance of the evening, maybe because the opening salvo is my first in 18 years and it completely stuns me to the extent that I briefly entertain the thought of running for dear life. Instead, I remain rooted to the ground, even managing an attempt to sway in the tar-like Morbid Angelic Emperorian dirges, apparently dirges, though not without moments of Mayhemish blasted speed that make me taste my heart in my throat. Yet I remain, gradually enjoying the experience. Boy, does that seem loud as a controlled demolition, though, my regret and frankly sheer foolishness (at the age of 50 with still a 98/100% hearing, well, at least as of 15 minutes ago) of not having brought earplugs to the show, a sentiment my companion wholeheartedly shares as he slowly sips his beer pursuant to our mutually agreed policy of frugality. For all those musings, we both do enjoy Withering Soul’s seriously dark and evil music, and I make a mental note to definitely check out their stuff later. In moment of brief respite, C. quickly leans over and remarks how this is great but he’s wondering if we’ll be able to hear Be’lakor melodies with that sound which was clearly dominated by a slightly reverberate guitar tonnage. I mean, for real, these are 7 string Jack hammers in shapes of guitars, which I hope the trio reading this takes as a compliment, and I wonder if the studio albums sound this apocalyptic. Presently Withering Soul thanks the audience, with whom it has established an instant report, and exits the stage. As we take advantage of the break, I make a couple of observations.

I can tell the attendees love not just metal but music in general, as they seem to enjoy even a well chosen background music ranging from Eminem to grunge and 90s Megadeth. In fact, everyone sings the background “Black Hole Son” by Soundgarden in what feels like spiritual unison which inspires my next observation: the high level respect and genuine care for one another even as they mosh or sometimes quickly, move around the area, always aware of their surroundings, always careful not to cause any harm to another, instantly apologetic if failing at that. In this sense, we really are a family that transcends all our differences, convictions, ethnicity, religious and spiritual, and, of course, that increasingly relevant, political diversity. Given the highly volatile, unpredictable and extremely divisive state of our country, the fact that we can all drop all that just for the love of our deeply cherished music gives one hope against hope.

Apparently some technical difficulties, plus, every band obviously has their own equipment and even stage set which adds to the wait. I feel the initial shell shock slowly subside as I see new faces take the stage revealing another act setting up the stage and tuning their instruments, Ben’s In Flames’ Clayman T-shirt inspiring hope of hearing more melody. The four twenty year olds of whom three wear glasses reminscent of Darkest Hour’s vocalist John Henry, play a set of about four songs of thrash metallic, Darkest Hourly and Triviumish hardcore (apparently more than their officially reported output) with decent amount of melody a’la Megadeth’s Youthanasia¹⁹⁹⁴ with vein-ripping reverb during the fast thrashy parts that I start worrying a little about my hearing, a bit of a letdown after the Withering Soul as far as music is concerned. C, seemingly sharing the sentiment, reemphasizes our failure to bring earplugs as he remarks how someone selling them outside The Forge right now would be likely to make a killing. Using the break, we order another round of horrifyingly expensive Pabst Blue-Ribbon beer which, this time, I pay for looking forward to hearing more melody from the upcoming Solemn Vision set list.

Appearing one man at a time, Aaron Harris (vocalist)
Rene Mauricio Gutierrez (guitarist), Kadin Wisniewski (guitars), Anthony Rafferty (bass) and Carlos Avelar (drums), visibly much older than their predecessors present a very engaging set of apparently complex progressive melodic death metal in the vein of God Forbid’s Determination²⁰⁰¹ and Neurosis, or perhaps even fellow NY citizens the sadly defunct Burnt By The Sun from their two albums Despite The Rise Of The Sun²⁰²³ and the 2019, as the highly charismatic Aaron engages the audience of like reciprocating maniax, Solemn Vision both impressing me with their craft and stage presence and encouraging me to explore their discography after the concert, an opinion C. enthusiastically shares. With the proper support, these guys could really shake up the genre! Nevertheless, our middle aged backs and legs, unused to the several hour strain, are starting to feel the burn and our unearplugged ears seem to agree, so we welcome the break.

No matter how good any supporting acts can turn out, we all know that we come for the headliner, so our anticipation combined with our moderate tiredness and weariness reaches its peak. Finally, they come, frontman George Kosmas (guitars, vocals), Shaun Sykes (guitars), Steve Merry (keyboards, piano, samples), John Richardson (bass) and drummer Elliott Sansom filling the auditorium with tonal tease of their instruments tuning for a little while. When we get slightly impatient despite being aware of necessity of the delay, they strike the opening chords of what appears to be either an intro of some unidentified sort created for the sole purpose of opening live sets or, more likely, already the first notes of “Roots To Sever” from their magnificent 4th album Vessels²⁰¹⁸, followed by George welcoming us to take part in this spiritual experience, part of Be’lakor’s first North American tour in the 20 years of their existence! I now get Slayer’s Kerry King declaration “Religion? This is my religion! Wanna go to church, come to my show!” George Cosmas has grown long hair, which, along with the way he moves on stage and handles his guitar and bellows his powerful highly decipherable growls, is evocative of the late terribly missed Chuck Schuldiner of Death.

Presently, Be’lakor serves “Abeyance”, the opening cut from their excellent third album Of Breath And Bone²⁰¹² already whipping the crowd into a frenzy, George formally having introduced not just the band members but asking for a round of applause for each and every support band from the audience, which increases my respect and appeal of the band in my eyes, although I have known them from their 2009 promotion of the second album Stone’s Reach²⁰⁰⁹ and my Imhotep review of the physical album they had sent me at the time and they have always been supercool and super professional. Speaking of Stone’s Reach, “Remnants” takes us away, another testimony to another enduring aspect of Be’lakor, that most important factor: they don’t actually write songs-they write movements, symphonies, despite many of their songs having verses, choruses and all these other things that make their five albums such a joy to listen to. Seemingly having taken Insomnium’s magnificent Above The Weeping World²⁰⁰⁶ as the base and adding generous helpings of classic Dark Tranquillity and Opeth flavors, they have really created a niche of their own in the progressive melodic genre and today they are one of its staples. There is an absolute magic to the following opener from the same album’s “Venator”, probably my favorite, yet I become aware at this point of a powerful yearning for my favorite song, and, voila, as if they’ve read my thoughts, “Fraught”, heavenly notes from Of Breath And Bone as I become another instrument with ecstasy that rivals the best of dopamine trip live can serve, as waves of unearthly sirenic melody flow through me as if they were my own blood. What a rush! “Sun’s Delusion” (Stone’s Reach) waxes more progressive and George announces a cut from the most recent 5th album the excellent Coherence²⁰²¹, “Valence”, as I realize it’s been 4 years and they have probably started working on new songs by now. And the moment which we all hate comes when the last song is introduced, the closer from Stone’s Reach, “Countless Skies”, toward which end I and C. move away from the stage and toward the venue door to leave as soon as the band puts away their instruments in apparent intention to leave the stage. These guys are giants of melodeath, probably even above Dark Tranquillity (equal live) and at least equal to Insomnium! Holy smokes, this had to have been one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended!

Post-concert update:
As it turned out, we had left prematurely as there had been an encore of “The Smoke Of Many Fires” (Vessels closer) which we missed, as I later found out with sadness and disappointment in my own judgment. Well, next to securing at least one pair of earplugs, something to remember next time!