Friday, November 27, 2009

Beyond Mind - Wrath of the Dead Tounge - 89




Beyond Mind is a two-man depressive black metal band from New Zealand. This is their debut five track EP, Wrath of the Dead Tounge.

The name itself, Beyond Mind, and the EP name, Wrath of the Dead Tounge, are interesting and intriguing by themselves, so upon recieving this EP, I was betting for some strange enigmatic black metal. This is what I got too, and I am definitly pleased with the results. Two words one could use to descirbe this release are droning, and spacey. They tend to go off into three minute long drones, maybe one of discordant, distorted, three note riffs. Maybe one of somewhat melodic, clean guitar.

The vocals are another thing I'd like to mention. They're very packed with emotion, giving a vibe off of pure depravity and insanity, which I like. They're not sad, or very hateful, just insane. It's pretty original and I like it. It's fitting to hear him slurring twisted words over an entrancing drone.

Depressive black metal is an interesting thing, and I think Beyond Mind takes a very original approach to this, if you consider them depressive. Normally when you think of depressive black metal, you think sad songs, tortured vocals, minor keys, ect. Beyond Mind is not like this. They have slow, low guitar riffs, most of which do not seem to follow a minor key, and again, this can easily be described as very expressive of insanity. This is more akin to Xasthur or Leviathan than it is Nocturnal Depression or Drowning the Light. No melodic guitar lines here. Probably my only major gripe with this is, it's monotony and lack of occasional melody.

Overall a good release, I reccomend you to check Beyond Mind.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Radu, I hope you get back to commenting and writing on this blog. I think you have some very good opinions on music and do well here.
    Take care - Michael

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