Death metal disrupters Beyond The Void release their first full-length album, The Machinist.

Beyond The Void is a death metal band from France. They have been around for less than a lustrum, releasing their inaugural EP Ex Nihilo Nihil in 2020. Their truculent brand of metal is even better expressed in the long form of the new album. The band is Antoine Grasser (guitar), Maxime le Corre (drums), Cyril Cozza (vocals), Antoine Bieber (guitar), and Laurent Schmitt (bass).

After an eerie prelude of disturbing angular strings, the album gets going with a signature titular song. The vocals are gruff, with occasional pairings for depth and hiss. The guitars are aggressive, stabbing, with hooks appearing and going off at unpredictable intervals. There is a detectable 1980s injection that is nice to hear, and a number of other elements that are difficult to characterize. Swimming and fighting together, these musical pieces somehow achieve synergy. “From The Sky” follows, the longest track and a departure into a more measured, but no less peculiar, landscape. The slow pace dissolves into frenzy before much time passes, spinning you around and showing you a different view. The effect is exhilarating while also being disequilibrating.

The album is one fired canon after another. Their music has been described as brutal death metal, and it is, some of the time. That is not all, though, as there is a mad collaboration with less caustic musical enterprises that smashes together in a sonic particle collider yielding spectacular results. Look for “Hymns Of Annihilation” especially as the perfect example of this creation in action. “The Shadow In My Mind” is a wild one that will make you dizzy, and the title track is an urgent closer. After listening to this record, I consider myself shook up. Recommended.

The Machinist is out now through Great Dane Records. In the US, Bandcamp is a good place to pick the digital or CD.

Links.

Bandcamp, https://greatdanerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-machinist

Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/beyondthevoidmetal/

Great Dane Records, https://www.greatdanerecs.com/eshop/web/

© Wayne Edwards