ALBUM REVIEW: Beyond The Black – Beyond The Black

You can tell that Jennifer Haben has a pop background. Before forming BEYOND THE BLACK, she was a member of SAPHIR, a German group comprising four young women who appeared on a televised singing competition. They were relatively short-lived, but when Haben moved into metal she brought a lot of choruses with her.

This won’t be news to anyone that’s followed BEYOND THE BLACK over the past few years. One slightly underwhelming third album aside, their discography so far has been hugely enjoyable. The typical BEYOND THE BLACK song is roughly four minutes long and sounds similar to a slightly-less-pompous NIGHTWISH. They have choruses that lodge in your brain for days, nice chunky riffs, and hooks so big it’s a miracle they don’t have those alien whales from the new Avatar movie caught on them. And if that comes across like a back-handed compliment, it’s not meant to.

This new self-titled effort does nothing to change that. In fact, this is arguably their best work to date. Clocking in at just under forty-five minutes, it’s a streamlined and highly efficient album where all excess fat has been trimmed off. This is a record where every song is a potential single in waiting and it’s a hugely enjoyable way to kick-start 2023.

If Beyond The Black has a fault though, it’s that it’s front-loaded. The opening Is There Anybody Out There? is an immediate attention-grabber and quickly stakes a claim as one of the best songs they’ve ever written. The following Reincarnation is equally good and establishes itself as a classic before the second verse even starts. This introductory duo are a phenomenal way to kick things off, but despite their best efforts, the band never quite reach their own high standards. Having the comparatively sedate Free Me as the third song was a mistake too. It’s a perfectly fine song, but it’s also a ballad and takes away some of the momentum by appearing too early.

That said, there’s really nothing else to criticise here. They’ve still got masses of killer songs like Raise Your Head and the excellent Not In My Name, so aside from switching the track listing around a bit, we can’t fault it. Into The Light and Dancing In The Dark are pretty much guaranteed to turn even the dingiest pub venue into an arena, they’re loud, memorable and most importantly, fun. They’re also, marginally-less cheesy than some of the contemporaries. BEYOND THE BLACK manage to sound epic without being over-the-top and don’t reach the preposterous silliness their chosen genre sometimes wanders into.

As an easily digestible forty minutes of power metal then, Beyond The Black is easy to recommend. It’s not so much an album as a collection of earworms, and the lead singer looks and sounds like she has a Dothraki army and three pet dragons hidden somewhere. It’s only January and BEYOND THE BLACK have released one of the most shamelessly entertaining records of the year. If they keep this up, they could be the next big power metal breakthrough.

Rating: 9/10

Beyond The Black is set for release on January 13th via Nuclear Blast Records. 

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