Beyond Mortal Dreams - As Death, We Shall Walk

BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS - As Death, We Shall Walk (LAVADOME productions CD 2017)

Beyond Mortal Dreams belongs to my favourite Australian bands and I sincerely like their music a lot. Such stuff as "Dreaming Death" or "From Hell" are insanely killer pieces of death metal and I guarantee many of you will like it also, so better check this band out. I'm always looking forward for new releases from Beyond Mortal Dreams then, which sadly don't come too often. So far, the last piece of their savagery was unleashed in 2016 in form of compilation CD "As Death, We Shall Walk" by Lavadome Productions. Obviously, I bought a copy. And obviously I think this is great music. 

"As Death, We Shall Walk" compiles few pretty new, but also few older recordings from Beyond Mortal Dreams. It contains songs from the killer "Lamia" EP (2014) and couple of recently recorded songs. But some other tracks are taken from "Promo 2004" or "The Demon and the Tree of the Dead" demo 2006, so the time gap between all recordings is pretty big. And obviously you can hear it, whether in the sound quality or in the quality of songwriting. It won't be a surprise if I say that both tracks from "Lamia" are far more superior than the rest of this CD content. But it's all great death metal anyway and from start to finish "As Death, We Shall Walk" is just worthy release. 

First, there's that killer EP from 2014. Both "Lamia" EP tracks are just fantastic. What a powerful sound, what a stunning vicious and truly savage, relentless death metal. It's slightly in the vein of early Morbid Angel, sometimes maybe Immolation. I even feel like it has a lot in common with some Polish death metal acts!! It's very fast, blasting piece of death metal. It's brutal, fairly technical, yet it somehow keeps that old school vibe and the riffs are just truly killer. Perfect musicianship also. I love the guitar work, flawless drumming... Amazing recording.  

Then there's "Promo 2004" and "The Demon and the Tree of the Dead" demo - and as far as I can see from Metal Archives, both these releases are not presented in their entirety, which is a shame and a small disappointment for me personally. I have to say that "Promo 2004" songs are the weakest stuff from Beyond Mortal Dreams. First of all, the production is much weaker, as it lacks that powerful aspect of Beyond Mortal Dreams music almost totally. The first track "Hellstorms of the Coming Apocalypse" is pretty dull instrumental piece and "Destined for Annihilation" is definitely better, I can hear some insane good riffs there, but it's not the same quality as the future recordings yet. Luckily two tracks from "The Demon and the Tree of the Dead" demo are great. Much better sound and just fierce, brutal blasting death metal. Maybe someone would say that there's even too much blasts and the music would require more diverse playing, but I like it that way. It kills with no mercy and just rips the ears. Besides, Beyond Mortal Dreams did add some nice features there, like keyboards in the title song, so this track is just a killer. There's even a bit of Nile-esque kind of riffing here and there, so... good stuff. 

But it's the song "Underground Dwellers", recorded in 2015, which is the most interesting from all these little known Beyond Mortal Dreams tracks. It's a killer mixture of blasts and slow paced, more atmospheric death metal. Very good riffs, great atmosphere and pure savagery from this Australian band! Two solid covers of Kreator and Nocturnus are there also (and "Lake of Fire" is especially good). All in all then, an interesting compilation CD, which I hope is not the last word from Beyond Mortal Dreams and maybe it's time to attack us with new full length?! 

Standout tracks: "Underground Dwellers", "Lamia", "Demonsword Infernal" 

Verdict: 70/100