Be Persecuted has a sound that will be immediately familiar to fans of Australia's Abyssic Hate; indeed, had I received this album undocumented, I may have assumed it was the long-awaited successor to _Suicidal Emotions_ (2000). The guitars are extremely distorted and fuzzy, sweeping across simple chords in trance inducing, repetitive phrases. The drumming often starts at an enthusiastic pace, before slamming on the brakes as melancholy sets in, sometimes almost drawing to a halt as they hang on grimly to each beat as though it were the last thing keeping them alive. The vocals are very much of the Burzum school, squawking forlornly into the void. Surprisingly enough, the vocalist is a woman, although this tidbit of information makes little difference to the music and is only really significant in the unlikely event that you're attending a Chinese black metal pub quiz in the near future.

Like their Australian contemporaries, Be Persecuted lets a few rays of light seep into their blackened world. On this occasion, the effect is achieved through clean, melodic guitar lines that sit beneath the depressive wash, prodding away hopefully. Occasionally, keyboards are employed to the same end. The result is not as subtly brilliant as Abyssic Hate's work, which achieved this paradoxical euphoria -- the warm embrace of death -- entirely within the framework of outward grief. Nonetheless, Be Persecuted's _I.I_ is a fine expression of solitude and desperation that conveys the suicidal emotion better than most.