Beyond God - EP Review
Dark Light of Dawn

2013
Self-Released
4 Tracks
The Netherlands
English Lyrics

For a small country, the Netherlands has already quite a number of female fronted metal bands. OK we have a tradition in this (Within Temptation, Epica,...) and we are the first country with regular education program with specialization in metal -- "The Metal Factory" with Marcela Bovio (Stream of Passion) teaching vocals. Nevertheless I was a little bit surprised when I received on Facebook the message from Peter den Bakker announcing the release of Dark Light of Dawn. I know Peter from Ex Libris, a progressive metal band with front lady Dianne van Giersbergen. Of course it's not uncommon that musicians are involved in more than one project; anyway it made me very curious about what to expect from Beyond God.

Before going into details of the music, you should know that this EP is not only self-released but also self-produced. Everything is done by the band. This choice I assume might be related to the history of the band. It is also why it took quite a while before Dark Light of Dawn was released. Beyond God was initiated by Ferry Guns in 2008. Every band has its own process of creating songs; however in this case Ferry (drums) started with basic symphonic orchestrations and added drums (his piece) to these orchestrations. After that he started looking for musicians who could help him complete his project by turning his concepts into the symphonic metal songs they are now. In 2011 Peter den Bakker (bass), Cynthia Knoch (vocals) and Twan Smolders (guitar) joined Beyond God. Then it took the band more than a year to mature to the level of being able to record the debut EP.

The music incorporates elements of classical and symphonic music with heavy metal. The vocalist Cynthia from Luxemburg is a classically schooled soprano with quite some experience in a "popular classic" environment, being a singer in the orchestra of André Rieu. With that Beyond God has an excellent singer with a lot of possibilities; she has a great reach and also the power to move quickly from "poppy" to rock to operatic metal and reverse. Adding heavy and sharp guitars and this great voice to the orchestrations results in dark, symphonic compositions.

The EP starts with "Destination Darkness". The song opens with an epic orchestration that moves you into the musical direction of Epica. Then up-tempo pounding drums, heavy guitars and continued string orchestration brings you immediately into another dimension. Then suddenly it slows down when Cynthia joins, then speeds up again, and slows down. This dark song with a lot of variation not only in the use of voice, but also in the guitars, drums and orchestration, is my favorite of this release. It has almost everything you expect from a symphonic metal song.

"Memories" starts with an intriguing choir orchestration . At the climax it's taken over by slow heavy guitar riffs before fading into a ballad. The first phase of the song features orchestration in the background, acoustic guitar and modest singing with a well chosen tone. After the heavier, slow chorus, the acoustic guitar is replaced by a heavier electric guitar. Cynthia's singing gets more powerful and wider ranged, in good balance with what the song wants to present:

Memories taste eternal night
All off my dreams are with you
All of my dreams stay with you

A song to remember.

Next is "Passion". A very short dark orchestration is taken over by strong rhythmic guitars that will be a red line in the song. After the introduction the song falls down to a ballad type song with piano. But the passion comes immediately after that:

Passion can change your life
Passion makes history and this world
When without we're just shallow minds

That passion also influences the song(s). The guitars come back and the singing moves from modest rock to more powerful rock to modest operatic. It's hard to say that it's a slow song but it's also not up-tempo either. For sure it's a song with several levels. The choice to fade out the song is to me a good one.

Last song is "Nocturne". The start already indicates that it is a ballad. And this time the you're not surprised because it stays a ballad. The orchestration and singing moves gracefully to a climax that also is the end of the EP.

I was absolutely not disappointed with this dark symphonic metal album, The different starting point in composition influenced the music. It's not really heavy but for sure not soft. It's definitely one I will pick regularly when not looking for a real up-tempo album. It made me also curious to see a live performance and a full album. I would expecting up-tempo songs then. But this EP is a great introduction to Beyond God, a band that you should check out when you like dark, atmospheric compositions with heavy guitar riffs, symphonic orchestrations and an excellent voice.

8.5 / 10

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