Beyond hail from Bavaria, Germany, and were formed in 2008 under the moniker of Shapeless. As Shapeless, they released two demos, and under their current name, there was a demo in 2011 (from which two tracks have been redone for this debut full length) and an EP in 2012, which was called Enter Transcendence (also their Iron Bonehead-debut).
Fatal Power Of Death is Beyond’s debut full length studio release. The stuff was produced by Daniel ‘Avenger’ Cichos (you know, the guy behind excellent projects like Front Beast, Nocturnal, Hekate, Bestial Desecration etc.), who also contributed as session musician (additional vocals and keyboards), and the whole was finally mixed and mastered by Patrick W. Engel, who worked as mixer / master with hundreds of extreme bands, such as Soulgate’s Dawn, Abyssous, Desaster, Kali Yuga or Purgatory.
Fatal Power Of Death (total running time: forty nine minutes) opens rather creepy with Expressions (it starts with two minutes of horrific soundscape’ish Transcendental Ambient), but as soon as the band shows its true, ugly face, all Hell sonically breaks lose! The core of Beyond’s aural exploitation dwells in between timeless ultra-heavy and slow-paced USDM-alike stuff, and nineties-oriented trans-European Blast / Death Supremacy and Malignancy, coloured with pitch-black details of the Underworld’s bleakest sweetness. The equilibrium in between both approaches is superb, and so is the symbiosis, in each single piece, of lightning-fast eruptions and pounding decelerations.
Like so many releases on Iron Bonehead’s roster, this one lacks of originality. It is an old schooled tribute to the earliest years of Death Supremacy. But like, again, many releases on Iron Bonehead’s roster, the quality is way above average! I can’t find any ‘mistake’ whatsoever; even the sound, though rough and unpolished, fits perfectly to the nasty material. Therefore this is, with certainty, a worthy recommendation to fans of everything in between Morbid Angel, Incantation, Blasphemy, Unleashed, Sarcofago, Deiphago, Demigod, Acheron, Possessed, Dismember, Angelcorpse or Krisiun. Fatal Power Of Death contains the same intensity, a comparable technical experience, and an equal dose of morbid obscurity for sure! It goes for every title, with closing epic Consuming Black Void (which lasts for almost thirteen minutes!) as highlight!
The vinyl long player is limited to 1,000 copies only (800 black, 200 in transparent blue vinyl), and the cassette edition to 300 copies only.
FYI: the CD-version will be released via Necroshine Records.