Beyond Mortal Dreams - From Hell

BEYOND MORTAL DREAMS - From Hell (Self financed CD 2008)

If you’ve read my review of Beyond Mortal Dreams’ recently released “Dreaming Death” demo, then you may remember how enthusiastic and crazy I became about the music of this Australian band. It was like a great hammer of apocalypse, which nailed me to the ground and shattered completely. The feeling of joy when I managed to discover such a awesome underground death metal jewel was still fresh, when I contacted Doomsayer Heathen, in order to also get some of the previously released materials of his killer band. The debut CD, “From Hell”, is what Pahl Hodgson kindly sent to me and I am very grateful for that, as this album – released back in 2008, so there are four years of break between both releases – also do not disappoint and offers a music and quality, which I exactly hoped and expected to get.

“From Hell” was a self released CD, what I find as truly disappointing, when seeing so many shitty bands which have record deals with labels. It clearly means that either they missed their chance to sign a very good band (huge mistake!) or maybe simply Beyond Mortal Dreams squadron preferred to do everything themselves… I don’t know the answer on this question, but I cannot imagine how it happened that such a good album remained almost completely unnoticed… At least personally I’ve never spotted band’s name until last month…

The music on “From Hell” is not so much Nile infected, as “Dreaming Death”, although many influences from this band can also be traced around the tracklist, especially when the band blasts like a bulldozer, crushing the walls and with the vocals’ sound and their arrangements, as well as with the technical aspects of some of the riffs and the song structures and finally also with some more melodious patterns, which appear here and there. Other than that, it is straight forward, extreme death metal, which equally combines the modern and old school sounds and styles. For instance there are some moments, when I have a feeling like Beyond Mortal Dreams sounded like a speeded Incantation, but from the other hand there would also be some parts, when they seem to be very close to Morbid Angel. Such anthems as “Where the Unbelievers Burn” can stand as the prime examples of this awesome combination of those styles and man, I find is as almost impossible to resist its mammoth riffs, crazy tempos and lunatic guitar leads. But I think my favourite parts of the album are those slower and more monumental ones. It already starts in the opening song, “From Hell”, which - somewhere at the end - even has some keyboards, which create more eerie and apocalyptic atmosphere. But the real feast for me is “Desolation Hymn”. This instrumental song is a true masterpiece, perfectly composed, with incredible atmosphere and some killer tunes. It is like a combination of “God of Emptiness” with some slower and more epic parts from Nile and Behemoth. Especially the beginning of it reminds me Morbid Angel’s “God of…” or Behemoth’s “Alas, Lord Is Upon Me”. There are keyboard backgrounds, slow, doomy tempos, fantastic, melodic guitar solos… Damn, it sounds just perfect to my ears and I tend to listen to this song repeatedly. Arrrgghhhh!

But every song has its moments; each track has something to offer and is a memorable, strong death metal piece. “Destined for Annihilation”, although it is opened by some blasts and as overall it is very brutal, complex, technical song, also has some signs of more epic playing in its mid part. I especially like what happens, when the guitar lead appears and the riffs, which follow it. Arrghhh, they sound truly incredible and strong as fuckin hell. And then the furious “The Earth Belongs to Hell” and “In Agony Everafter” are next to possess me and especially the latter of these two caught my attention, as it is a 12 minute long death metal anthem, with impressive structure and riffs. Trust me, it doesn’t get boring, as the mood in it changes many times, it can be either very fast and furious or very slow and epic, with melodic, mournful guitar solos like in the ending part of the song. All in all, the impression is like I was run over by a fuckin death metal bulldozer. I love this song, again Beyond Mortal Dreams proved to be a master of such playing and again I cannot find a good reason why the hell no one has spotted this band and album before?! Fuck you all.

The thing with Beyond Mortal Dreams is that this band may not be the most original of all death metal bands around, but the quality of their music is just supreme and surpasses all my expectations. Every time I listen to their music I just feel the incredible energy and force, which comes out of the speakers and which makes me play it fuckin louder and louder and bang the skull. Beyond Mortal Dreams is able to not just blast, but they also have so many memorable, fantastic riffs and fragments, that in the end create truly stunning and involving music. And also the production on their recordings is perfect for such death metal style, so I can say that I have no more wishes, after hearing “From Hell”. This is a must have CD to be collected and personally I’m very glad that I got a chance to get to know it. Support the band or die!

Standout tracks: “From Hell”, “Desolation Hymn”, “In Agony Everafter”

Final rate: 88 / 100