BEYOND GOD
“The Great Divide”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9/10

Beyond God are a symphonic metal band from the Netherlands founded by drummer Ferry Guns in 2008. The band have released three albums to date – ‘A Moment Of Black’ (2016), ‘Dying To Feel Alive’ (2017), and ‘The Great Divide’ (2023)…

…featuring the bands trademark heavy guitars, symphonic strings and intricate orchestrations. ‘The Great Divide’ is ten songs and forty six minutes of hard hitting yet elegant compositions that “delve into the human psyche of relationships with time, love, memory and existence” – Beyond God an immensely majestic band, delivering an infectious album that’ll keep you hooked right from the beginning! And talking of beginning, ‘The Great Divide’ begins in mightily atmospheric fashion, with the tension fuelled ‘Cronos’ sending chills down the spine as it floats across the sky hopping from cloud to cloud! The building crescendo is relentless, eventually giving way to a thunderous gallop, ‘Cronos’ hitting harder than a sledge hammer smashing concrete!

The heavy hitting nature of the album opener kinda belies the bands symphonic metal tag – yes the vocals are what you’d expect, but the music is a tad more savage than your usual symphonic metal fare! Which ain’t a bad thing, not at all – ‘Frostbite’ maintaining the hammer blow ferocity with rhythmic aplomb, introducing a little aggression across the chorus break! Lead singer Meryl Foreman’s voice commands the airways, delivering a deep, powerful aura that consumes everyone and everything everywhere – the combination of extremely hard hitting heavy metal with symphonic vocals and a sprinkling of the bludgeoning nature of thrash, black or death metal taking me a little bit by surprise! Surprise in a good way though, the Dutch outfit not content to remain within the boundaries of just the one genre of metal, ‘Coronation’ moving stealthily forward, shuddering the ground and crumbling walls with immense force. And all with the most angelic vocal performance heard so far, Foreman’s voice soaring so high, it’s already reached outer space! And with more serenity than any of the songs heard so far, ‘Heartbreaker’ lurches forth with all the ambience of an impending ballad – until the thirty second mark! Then ‘Heartbreaker’ begins to build a crescendo of tension and anticipation, launching forth after a minute or so with a crushing cacophony of energy and oomph!

Beyond God are not your normal symphonic metal band, they’re carving out a unique sound within the genre, setting them apart from their contemporaries – the Dutch four piece taking inspiration from a myriad of metal genres, including the continually gaining in popularity “modern metal”. Imagine the likes of Tungsten, Scarleth and Astray Valley, and you’ll get some idea idea of how Beyond God sound – only some idea though, ’cause until you actually listen to the band first hand, you ain’t gonna have a clue of how emphatic and distinctive the bands really is! The title song ‘The Great Divide’ is the only song on offer to stretch beyond the five minute mark, featuring a jack hammer style rhythm and a more abrasive nature than any of the songs heard so far – the band continuing their genre hopping, boundary breaking journey of exploration and discovery! And bringing the glorious sound of traditional heavy metal to the fore, ‘A Siren’s Cry’ plants one “foot on the monitor” galloping forth with pace and purpose ala bands such as Iron Maiden and Samson – but with a symphonic metal twist! Tension rises to its highest point as ‘Pierced’ enters the fray with a sparkling anticipative intro, giving way to the bands emphatic thunderstomp – a stomp that’s been a major feature of the album since it began! The ground’s been shaking violently since song one, seismic activity recorded at every faultline across the surface of planet Earth – news flash readers, no one’s safe from the bands all consuming metal attack! So if you wanna hide, feel free – but let me warn you, Beyond God are gonna get ya, wherever you are, no matter how far!

The overwhelming intensity of the album has remained sky high since it began, however, an angelic mellowness descends upon the album in the shape of the keyboard led ‘The Elder Tree’, with a much more soulful vocal performance by Foreman than heard previously. Not quite fully taking root in ballad territory, ‘The Elder Tree’ is more akin to a mix of anthemic metal and hymn-like elegance, the band delivering awe and wonder in bucket loads! And with a blistering, and unexpected, change of speed, ‘Aphantasia’ rockets off at a hundred miles an hour, slowing to a more traditional pace as it gets going proper – the band bringing to the fore a little thrash metal aggression to supplement their root symphonic metal prowess. Throughout ‘The Great Divide’ (the album), Beyond God have swooned this way and that, roaming all over the genres of symphonic and modern metal with a little power metal thrown in for good measure – the album coming to a close with the majestic mood swinging ‘After Love Ends’, this time the band falling right bang smack in the middle of ballad territory – for at least the first minute or so anyway! And then the bands modern metal side takes over, ‘After Love Ends’ bustling its way forward, sprinkling the airways with heavy touches of symphonic power metal.

Overall, a meandering journey through a number of genres, Beyond God deliver a unique symphonic come heavy come modern metal array of songs.

TRACKLIST

Cronos
Frostbite
Coronation
Heartbreaker
The Great Divide
A Siren’s Cry
Pierced
The Elder Tree
Aphantasia
After Love Ends

http://beyondgod.nl/
https://www.facebook.com/beyondgodmusic

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