EP REVIEW: Welcome To The New Dark Ages Part 1 – Beyond Grace
Known as one of British extreme metal’s best kept secrets, Nottingham progressive death metal beasts BEYOND GRACE follow up their first two albums (2017’s powerful debut Seekers and 2021’s monstrous Our Kingdom Undone) with a new approach to releasing music but the same rage and hunger that fuelled the intensity of their previous efforts.
Responding to the way the musical landscape has changed in recent years, this EP is the first of three, which, when taken together, will make up their third full release Welcome To The New Dark Ages. It’s an interesting idea, which will give fans three brand new tracks with each EP, alongside a cover of a song that has inspired the band but which may not at first be an obvious influence.
Opener The Burning Season is a lesson in modern heaviness, an ominously off-kilter introduction segueing into a colossal verse where the beastly vocals of Andy Walmsley dominate. Before you can settle into it, though, the song veers off again, seemingly incorporating a little slice of everything from the last 30 years of extreme music. There are sections of sparse, melancholic, discordant guitars, blastbeat-fuelled rhythmic passages and, perhaps most unexpectedly, haunting sections of dark, clean vocals that lead the listener down a different, albeit no less sinister, path. Despite only clocking in at the 5:30 mark, the progressive approach to songwriting here means it has the epic sense of something twice that long, without ever feeling like it is outstaying its welcome. As an introduction to BEYOND GRACE’s new era, it is fascinatingly brutal and demands multiple listens.
The ambition of that first song continues with Buyers Remorse, which starts with some tech-death of the highest order, the riffing of Tim Yearsley and Chris Morley working brilliantly in tandem with the frantic rhythms of drummer Ed Gorrod, whose double-kick work is absolutely on-point throughout. Walmsley’s vocal range again stands out, moving from guttural low-end grunts to higher throat-ripping screams, with more of those melancholy clean vocals complementing the heavier stuff as the song progresses.
Third new track Misinfodemic hearkens back to the sheer fury of the band’s last album, both in terms of its lyrical themes of government betrayal and the weight of the music itself. The spite-filled opening sections assault the ears before again showcasing a moodier, slower but no less crushing second half, before the band’s cover of PETER GABRIEL‘s Here Comes The Flood finishes the whole thing off in suitably grim style, its moody and haunting opening building to a wonderfully apocalyptic interpretation.
The New Wave of British Death Metal continues to grow, with progressive releases from the likes of CONJURER, CELESTIAL SANCTUARY and CRYPTIC SHIFT all raising the bar in recent years. If BEYOND GRACE maintain the quality and ambition of songwriting on display here, they well and truly deserve a place among the current pace-setters of the British underground.
Rating: 9/10
Welcome To The New Dark Ages Part 1 is set for release on November 24th via self-release.
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