Archives of the Dead part XIV: Beyond Fear - Haunted by Visions of a Third Atrocity

Archives of the Dead part XIV: Beyond Fear - Haunted by Visions of a Third Atrocity (EP 1997)

Line up: Alex Betts (guitars), Jon Betts (bass, vocals, guitar), Doug Gray (drums)

This is the third recording from British Beyond Fear, whose awesome “Dreaming of Pure Carnage” demo I had a pleasure to listen and review just recently. Now I started to listen to this EP “Haunted by Visions of a Third Atrocity” from 1997 and I must say that it confirms my opinion  that this was truly awesome band. I guess the original CD version of this EP is damn rare and almost impossible to find nowadays, I wonder how many copies of it were spread back in 1997, but it is just shame that such a killer band not only ceased to exist even before this EP was officially unleashed, but that they never got attention they deserved. Pity… Anyway I am happy that once more someone has rescued these songs from oblivion and offered them as digital download, now I can at least know that if I ever see a physical copy of “Haunted by Visions of a Third Atrocity” I must get it immediately. For me this is one of the best British death metal bands and who knows if it also isn’t the best British death metal recording, which was done in the second part of the 90’s! I say so because most of the old bands at that time were either dead or changed their music drastically. I guess there was only Bolt Thrower, who’re worthy being mentioned here along with Beyond Fear. Maybe also Benediction, but they were not so good anymore.

Musically “Haunted by Visions of a Third Atrocity” is a great continuation of “Dreaming of Pure Carnage” demo, but maybe even better! Yeah, it feels like the production is even more aggressive and powerful, the songs are faster, more brutal and tighter and so the final effect is just pure death metal slaughter. There are again many similarities to such Monstrosity, Massacre, Vital Remains, Sinister, Incantation… It is truly rabid and relentless piece of death metal savagery!  But how awesome it sounds! Damn! There are just three songs here, but the entire demo is 30 minutes long, so again you can expect very long tracks, with a lot of focus on the riffing – which is as brutal as it always is memorable. The tempos are almost crazy and somehow I cannot remember so many bands at that time, which would be so damn fast and intense, especially with so long songs. I can only imagine what would Beyond Fear full album be like, if they existed long enough to have one recorded. Arrghhh, I can only scream and bang my head when listening to this stuff. Believe me, “Haunted by Visions of a Third Atrocity” will impress you a lot and I cannot even pick up which of these three songs is my favourite, as I feel like all of them are just fuckin killer. Maybe “Enchanted by Mortal Fears” is the best, but it changes every time I listen to this EP. Ha, I won’t write anything more… this is mandatory release and I truly recommend you listening to it. And if you will ever manage to get an original CD, then you can call yourself a lucky bastard!

Final rate: 90/100