Album Review: Beyond The Black - Heart Of The Hurricane

Oh, symphonic metal. I don't have a deep history with the genre, because many of the bigger bands that define it have one of two problems; either they feature classical singers who clash with the metal elements, or they splash fancy adornments on the bare-bones songs rather than write around their strings and keyboards. In a way, symphonic metal becomes a bit like showing off your bling. The bands are busy showing you all the fancy things they can do with their sounds and productions, but they don't bother telling you why you should be impressed with their songs. So facing that history, and this being a lengthy thirteen track affair, I was certainly nervous about hearing Beyond The Black for the first time.

Just listen to the opening "Hysteria", and you get a sense of what I mean. It's a standard power metal style song, with a few strings in the background. Those elements aren't deeply integrated into the composition. In fact, the song wouldn't change a bit if they were removed. When symphonic metal is at its best, the extra bits carry some of the main melodies, written in a way that plays to the voices of those instruments. If you don't do that, it's all window dressing. And while that can look and sound beautiful, it isn't impressive from a critical standpoint.

With that out of the way, let's focus on the positive here; Beyond The Black is writing good power metal, with plenty of big melodies. We can differ over the colors used, but the songs themselves are beyond reproach. The band has delivered strong material with solid hooks, and Jennifer Haben is more than up to the task of making these songs work. Her voice is clean and beautiful, but never so much so that she doesn't fit the nature of metal. She is equally adept at the heavier material like the title track as she is with the sweeping ballad "Through The Mirror".

The band keeps piling great songs on top of each other. "Million Lightyears" and "Song For The Godless" continue the run, and are equally fantastic numbers that hit all the right melodic notes. And it's about here in the record that I realized the biggest problem I was having; it isn't symphonic metal. Sure, there are added bits here and there, but the focus is never on the band being more than a traditional guitar/bass/drums setup. This is melodic/power metal with a few adornments, which is why it works so well. There isn't any self-indulgence to show how much of a 'composer' anyone is. They are writing songs that want to work as melodic metal, and that they do.

Really, the only issue with the record is that it might be a little longer than it needs to be. I've found that lengthy records have had a harder and harder time keeping my attention for the duration, so having fifteen tracks available could be too much of a good thing. Of course, having more than enough good songs for an album is a problem most bands don't have. Too much of a good thing is always better than not enough, and that they do. There aren't songs on here where things slow down, or you think they don't measure up. That's impressive.

I hadn't heard of Beyond The Black before I sat down to listen to this record, so it caught me a bit by surprise. If they aren't already a band on the upswing, this record should ensure they will soon be. It's very good, and better at this style than several of the big names.