Beyond Creation - ‘Earthborn Evolution’ (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 24/10/2014

Label: Season of Mist

‘Earthborn Evolution’ CD//DD//CS//LP track listing:

1. Elusive Reverence
2. Sous La Lueur De L'empereur
3. Earthborn Evolution
4. The Great Revelation
5. Neurotical Transmissions
6. Abstrait Dialog
7. The Axiom
8. L'exorde
9. Theatrical Delirium
10. Fundamental Process

Beyond Creation is

Simon Girard | Vocals / Guitars
Kevin Chartré | Guitars
Dominic 'Forest' Lapointe | Fretless Bass
Philippe Boucher | Drums

Review:

Beyond Creation is a progressive/technical death metal band from Montreal, Quebec, and has some extremely talented musicians creating sounds for the future. Released on October 24^th 2014, 2014, Earthborn Evolution’ is a ten track album full of everything a metal lover needs to satisfy that tech death addiction. Fans of Obsucra, Nerophagist, and The Faceless will easily love this album and the bands work in general. I feel like every member is a perfect fit for this band and contributes to every measure for the end result of a masterfully created prog/tech number.

Simon Girard lays down vocals that are fearsome and fit well into the bands overall sound. Kevin Chartré and Simon Girard create amazing guitar solos and noodling riffs that leave listeners with melted faces and thousands in medical bills for reconstructive surgery. Dominic “Forest” Lapointe is the bass player born to play tech death and is heard clearly throughout this album. Philippe Boucher is the Drum Machine Extraordinaire, hammering out daring fills and incredibly time warping blast beats that can get anybody’s head banging. Beyond Creation’s ‘Earthborn Evolution’ is a magnificently written technical onslaught.

​The album opens with ‘Elusive Reverence’, which I feel was a great starting track because it gives you an idea of what the whole album will be like. It’s in full gear and has a short but vicious solo by Kevin. The second track, and by far my favorite, is ‘Sous La Lueur De L’empereur’; its lyrics are in French so I had no clue what he was saying until I used a search engine to translate, but it has a poetic flow and strong lyrical themes. There’s this riff after Simon’s solo that I absolutely love, and it’s the main reason why this track is my favorite. It’s so evil and dark, and I feel like the band uses the theme from this riff in future tracks on the album. In the title track ‘Earthborn Evolution’, the bass really shines through; it’s very involved and constantly evolving. The guitars for some reason remind me of Scale the Summit, but after Kévin’s solo you hear remains of the riff from the second track being reprised. The track ends with a powerful bass solo. The fifth track ‘Neurotical Transmissions’ has an Opeth-esque sounding intro and I like how the backup vocals were mixed on this track. This track has the best solos on the album and some of the more mathy riffs. ‘Abstrait Dialog’ is the instrumental track and I’m so happy that there is one because I usually prefer instrumental tracks.  It’s epic and the band shows-off all their musical abilities without the distraction of vocals. ‘The Axiom’ has some riffs that are really chaotic but constantly changing so a lot of it is short lived. ‘Theatrical Delirium’ is terrifying from start to finish, the guitars are so chunky and will catch you by surprise. The song goes though some major changes and really picks up towards the end. This track has unfathomable bits that leave you questioning reality.

The final track, ‘Fundamental Process’, is a strong closer and really leaves you wanting more from the band. It has an eerie beginning and the whole band explodes on this track. It’s as if the whole album is rounded up and being blasted back at you for seven minutes. In short then, ‘Earthborn Evolution’ is a must listen for any fans of Prog/tech death metal. It will get you on all levels and definitely catch you by surprise. The guitar, bass, and drums are all pulled off extremely well. I can’t wait to hear more from Beyond Creation after my many play throughs and many more to come. I highly recommend this album. (Side note: The album artwork is fantastic, it’s clearly inspired by the late H.R. Giger which makes this album even more stunning and memorable.)

Words by: Jihad Nasser

You can pick up a copy here

For more information:

https://www.facebook.com/BeyondCreationOfficial | https://www.youtube.com/user/BeyondCreationMetal | https://twitter.com/beyondcreation1 | https://beyondcreation.bandcamp.com/