The Moshville Times - Review: Beyond Creation

[avatar =”James” size=”50″ align=”left” /]I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that Beyond Creation were working on a new album. With it being three years since their last album, The Aura, I was wondering what they were doing given I’d not heard much from them on their Facebook.

Coming up on their 10th year as a band, and sporting new drummer Philippe Boucher, this is what they were doing. Creating the masterpiece that is Earthborn Evolution.

Production wise, it’s certainly better rounded than the last. The previous album didn’t sound bad, but Forest’s bass was very in your face. It made it a little difficult to listen to the whole album at once, but it aside from that it was an astounding album. Better than most band’s fourth of fifth and this was their debut! Onto the follow up then…

Kicking the album off is the track “Elusive Reverence”. A straight up technical marvel featuring the customary “Beyond Creation” sound. Fretless bass, fast and technical guitar riffs, blast beats and mixed high and low growls.

Onto the second track, “Sous la luer de l’empereur”. Roughly translated as ‘Under the glow of the Emperor’, it follows a similar theme to the previous. This time however, there’s a little more shredding and a little bit less of the technical wizardry. That’s not to say it’s easy to play, none of it is. Employing a nice little bass and guitar duet at the 1:12 mark, it makes a stark change from sweeping shredding melodies.

One of my favorites from the album and the title track then plays. Starting with a simple bass riff followed by a sweeping bass solo, it reminds me very much of the title track from the last album. Keeping a slower tempo before following the other songs fast tempos, it really shows off the musicianship of band . Featuring another bass solo towards the end of the song, it finishes similar to the way it started.

A more straight-up flowing melodic song follows in the form of “The Great Revelation”. A more classic sounding song, it sounds a lot like ‘Le Détenteur’ from The Aura. That’s more a good thing than a bad, as it adds some variety to the album.

Onto my favorite from the album, “Neurotical Transmissions”. A masterpiece of flowing bass melodies, shredding riffs and insane guitar solos, it really does make you wonder how they come up with some of these riffs, let alone play them.

“Abstrait Dialog” is a bit different from the other tracks, it’s an instrumental and really shows that even without vocals, they can still create technical marvels and keep the listener interested and excited.

Bringing vocals back into the equation is the song “The Axiom”. A little bit different from the others, featuring a more complex time signature and slowed down vibe it stands out from the rest. It’s not that it doesn’t fit in, it’s just a bit different from the other tracks.

Another shorter track in the form of “L’exorde” then plays. Roughly translated as ‘The exordium”, it’s very similar to the earlier track “The Great Revelation”. It features another sweeping bass and guitar melody and makes for an enjoyable listen.

Starting things completely differently is the track “Theatrical Delirium”. In what can only be really described as a drone, it starts very creepily and then smashes into the style heard across the album. The second longest track on the album, it gives way to an epic bass solo and several epic guitar solos. Employing a similar style of bass and guitar duet as heard in “Sous la luer de l’Emperor” at around the 4:12 mark, it makes it one of the highlights of the album.

The end album song, “Fundamental Process” opens with another creepy drone style sound before blasting into the customary sweeping melodies and technical shredding that’s heard on the rest of the album. Similar to the last track on the previous album, in that it is the longest and darkest on the album it provides a dark and epic ending to the masterpiece.

I’d recommend this album for fans of the more technical side of metal, such as Obscura, Bloodshot Dawn and Origin. Death metal fans might enjoy this as well, it’s a really really good album.

Oh, and the band have posted a bass play through of the song “Elusive Reverence”. Check it out below.

Track List: