Album Reviews : Beyond Creation – Algorhythm
Beyond Creation are a Technical, progressive, death metal band from Montreal, Quebec. Their latest album Algorhythm is their 3rd release and comes 4 long years after their most recent release Earthborn Evolution (2014). I’m a huge fan of what Beyond Creation do, and I’m also a big fan of their quality-over-quantity approach to releasing material. Algorhythm is a complex beast of an album, so it’s of little surprise that the band have taken four years to write and record.
The album gets underway with the brooding orchestral track “Disenthrall”. The main sinister motif is played on brass instruments and creates a dark, foreboding atmosphere which sets the scene nicely for what is to come. It’s a nice piece of music; hats off to whoever composed/arranged this one.
“Entre suffrage et” mirage is a great track. The virtuosity of the entire band is on show from the very first chord, with the fretless bass of Hugo Doyon-Karout being particularly prominent along with the drumming of Philippe Boucher. Simon Girard’s vocals are a particular highlight of the Beyond Creation sound for me – his deep growls are super powerful and his high screams are really strong too. Guitar-wise, both Girard & Chartré are both in fine form.
“Surface’s Echoes” starts with a mellow tapped motif before opening up into a sprawling web of finger-twisting heaviness. There are some Djenty rhythms in this one, but generally, it has all of the hallmarks of the Beyond Creation sound – intricate arrangements including tapped riffs, complex bass lines, complex drumming, and big heavy vocals.
“Etheral Kingdom” is one of the best tracks on the album. I love the way Beyond Creation can turn relatively simple finger tapped chord progressions into such full sounding walls of technical death metal. The title track Algorythm is another example of this. Philippe Boucher’s drumming is a real feature in this track – creating different moods and atmospheres to the song by deploying a wide range of grooves, double kick passages and blast beats. “Algorythm” has a run time of over 7 mins but it’s an easy listen. This track has it all – Whilst getting lost in the drawn out instrumental passages I can’t help but reflect on how great beyond Creation’s sound is for my taste – they really have nailed the perfect blend of technical death metal & virtuosic progressive metal.
“À travers le temps et l’oubli” is an instrumental played predominantly on the keyboard. It’s a downtempo track which offers a nice moment of serenity mid-way through the release. “In Adversity” in potentially the heaviest track on the album. It’s a short but sweet track running in at 3:18 which is concise by Beyond Creation standards. Despite the relatively brief runtime, the band find plenty of time to pack in maximum shred in this track – sweep arpeggio’s-r-us.
“The Inversion” has a really epic chord progression and it’s another of my personal favourite tracks. Without swooning too hard, I need to point out just how cohesive the band are able to make their arrangements seem despite the guitars and bass lines never locking in on unison riffs – the two guitarists counter each other perfectly. When you think the riff is sounding really solid the fretless bass will start adding in an additional layer of melody which complements the rest of the bands work flawlessly.
“Binomial Structures” is an instrumental piece which allows all of the members to showcase their proficiency on their instruments. Despite the lack of vocals, the track has no problem holding my attention over the 6.5 minutes run time. There are plenty of melodic hooks and jaw-dropping solos in this one.
“The Afterlife” is a fantastic song, and closes the album really well. Generally, it’s quite a fast, heavy number, but like all the songs on the album has plenty going on. The Orchestral arrangement at the end of the track creates an added sense of closure to the track and the album in general; A fittingly epic conclusion to both the track and album.
If you’re unfamiliar with Beyond Creation, get on them now. If bands like Archspire, Psycroptic, Fallujah, Gojira (… hell even Opeth and Symphony X ) are the sort of bands that you enjoy listening to then I have no doubt that there will be plenty for you to enjoy on Beyond Creation’s latest release.
Algorhythm by Beyond Creation is likely to be my Album of the Year. It takes everything I like from the Tech Death, Progressive death, and Progressive metal genres throws it all in a blender and provides an incredibly well-delivered slab of Tech/Prog Metal. Top marks.
Band: Beyond Creation
Album: Algorhythm
Year: 2018
Genre: Technical Death Metal
Label: Season Of Mist
Origin: Canada
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