BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS - From Hell (Self financed CD 2008)
If you’ve read my review of Beyond Mortal
Dreams’ recently released “Dreaming Death” demo, then you may remember how
enthusiastic and crazy I became about the music of this Australian band. It was
like a great hammer of apocalypse, which nailed me to the ground and shattered
completely. The feeling of joy when I managed to discover such a awesome
underground death metal jewel was still fresh, when I contacted Doomsayer
Heathen, in order to also get some of the previously released materials of his
killer band. The debut CD, “From Hell”, is what Pahl Hodgson kindly sent to me
and I am very grateful for that, as this album – released back in 2008, so
there are four years of break between both releases – also do not disappoint
and offers a music and quality, which I exactly hoped and expected to get.
“From Hell” was a self released CD, what I find
as truly disappointing, when seeing so many shitty bands which have record
deals with labels. It clearly means that either they missed their chance to
sign a very good band (huge mistake!) or maybe simply Beyond Mortal Dreams
squadron preferred to do everything themselves… I don’t know the answer on this
question, but I cannot imagine how it happened that such a good album remained
almost completely unnoticed… At least personally I’ve never spotted band’s name
until last month…
The music on “From Hell” is not so much Nile
infected, as “Dreaming Death”, although many influences from this band can also
be traced around the tracklist, especially when the band blasts like a
bulldozer, crushing the walls and with the vocals’ sound and their
arrangements, as well as with the technical aspects of some of the riffs and
the song structures and finally also with some more melodious patterns, which
appear here and there. Other than that, it is straight forward, extreme death
metal, which equally combines the modern and old school sounds and styles. For
instance there are some moments, when I have a feeling like Beyond Mortal
Dreams sounded like a speeded Incantation, but from the other hand there would
also be some parts, when they seem to be very close to Morbid Angel. Such
anthems as “Where the Unbelievers Burn” can stand as the prime examples of this
awesome combination of those styles and man, I find is as almost impossible to
resist its mammoth riffs, crazy tempos and lunatic guitar leads. But I think my
favourite parts of the album are those slower and more monumental ones. It
already starts in the opening song, “From Hell”, which - somewhere at the end -
even has some keyboards, which create more eerie and apocalyptic atmosphere.
But the real feast for me is “Desolation Hymn”. This instrumental song is a
true masterpiece, perfectly composed, with incredible atmosphere and some
killer tunes. It is like a combination of “God of Emptiness” with some slower
and more epic parts from Nile and Behemoth. Especially the beginning of it
reminds me Morbid Angel’s “God of…” or Behemoth’s “Alas, Lord Is Upon Me”.
There are keyboard backgrounds, slow, doomy tempos, fantastic, melodic guitar
solos… Damn, it sounds just perfect to my ears and I tend to listen to this
song repeatedly. Arrrgghhhh!
But every song has its moments; each track has
something to offer and is a memorable, strong death metal piece. “Destined for
Annihilation”, although it is opened by some blasts and as overall it is very
brutal, complex, technical song, also has some signs of more epic playing in
its mid part. I especially like what happens, when the guitar lead appears and
the riffs, which follow it. Arrghhh, they sound truly incredible and strong as
fuckin hell. And then the furious “The Earth Belongs to Hell” and “In Agony
Everafter” are next to possess me and especially the latter of these two caught
my attention, as it is a 12 minute long death metal anthem, with impressive structure
and riffs. Trust me, it doesn’t get boring, as the mood in it changes many
times, it can be either very fast and furious or very slow and epic, with
melodic, mournful guitar solos like in the ending part of the song. All in all,
the impression is like I was run over by a fuckin death metal bulldozer. I love
this song, again Beyond Mortal Dreams proved to be a master of such playing and
again I cannot find a good reason why the hell no one has spotted this band and
album before?! Fuck you all.
The thing with Beyond Mortal Dreams is that
this band may not be the most original of all death metal bands around, but the
quality of their music is just supreme and surpasses all my expectations. Every
time I listen to their music I just feel the incredible energy and force, which
comes out of the speakers and which makes me play it fuckin louder and louder
and bang the skull. Beyond Mortal Dreams is able to not just blast, but they
also have so many memorable, fantastic riffs and fragments, that in the end create
truly stunning and involving music. And also the production on their recordings
is perfect for such death metal style, so I can say that I have no more wishes,
after hearing “From Hell”. This is a must have CD to be collected and
personally I’m very glad that I got a chance to get to know it. Support the
band or die!
Standout tracks: “From Hell”, “Desolation Hymn”,
“In Agony Everafter”
Final rate: 88 / 100
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