Technical death metal tends to be quite predictable these
days. Ever since the invasion of Brain Drill, there has been an endless stream
of bands that are obsessed with figuring out how many times they can sweep pick
in a 4-minute song. While I enjoyed the initial hilarity of Brain Drill at
first, it made the rest of the genre hard to listen to. Luckily, there are
some bands that manage to take the best elements of modern technical death metal and mix
it with their own style. This is where Beyond Creation fits in. While they definitely play standard modern tech-death, they understand how not to overdo the technical
elements.
Consistently throughout this record, you’ll be hit with the
staples of the genre: blasting drums, shredding guitars, loud but enjoyable
bass, and plenty of tremolo picking. As mentioned, however, Beyond Creation
does a few things to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Songs like
“Coexistence” feature lengthy clean sections (not unlike Obscura sometimes
does). The band also does time signature changes seamlessly. Some bands can make these
sections feel awkward, but on “The Aura”, you never really notice they are
there (in fact, I’m just assuming they are; everything sounds normal to me, but
this is a tech-death record, so they've got to be there). In
addition, the drums do more than simply blast. They often switch between heavy
double-bass sections and blasting, while using snares or toms for accents on
what the guitars are playing. The drumming is a very important element to help
break the monotony, but the guitars also work to eliminate this issue. Although
there are leads almost constantly, they aren’t leads just to show off. There is
always a discernable melody to the leads. My favourite of these comes at the
halfway mark in “Omnipresent Perception”, but in general, these leads are far too numerous
to actually remember most of them. This brings me to my only issue with this
record: it’s still a tech-death album. At 52 minutes, it’s difficult to really
remember much of this album. Even if you put aside memorability, it’s a lot to
digest in one sitting. There’s no doubt that Beyond Creation do this style much
better than most of their contemporaries, but what happened to writing songs
that were simple structurally, but technical from an instrumental perspective? “Individual
Thought Patterns” and “Unquestionable Presence” are my main points of reference
here; both of those albums are insanely technical, yet are completely memorable
throughout.
For fans of the genre, I know this is going to be a
favourite. It does everything well, and it is even accessible as someone who
isn’t a fantatic of the style. If I go for modern tech-death, you can bet that I’ll
be reaching for this record. It is impressive that a band’s first record can so
accurately capture all of the high points of a genre. “The Aura” is sure to be
a record that people will be talking about for years!
Highlights
"Coexistence"
"Omnipresent Perception"
Final Rating
4.0/5 or 80%.