Kev Rowland This is the third album from Canadian technical death metal act Beyond Creation, but it isn’t hard to also why they are listed on PA as yet again we have a band pushing musical boundaries. While the band for the most part is similar in many ways to the likes of Nile, with complex intertwined blistering guitar passages combined with over the top drum fills, and vocals which are guttural and raw, what really makes this stand out for me is the bass. I guess that Hugo Doyon-Karout knows he is playing in an extreme metal act, but someone seems to have forgotten to have told him what his role is supposed to be, as not only is he playing a fretless bass, but he is all over the place. Sometimes he joins in with the guitars on the complex interchanges, leaving drummer Philippe Boucher to keep it all together by himself, while at others he has the temerity to play lead solos over the top of Simon Girard and Kévin Chartré. Doesn’t he know that the role of a bassist is to provide the platform for others, not be at the forefront of what is going on?

Needless to say, the result makes for an incredibly fascinating and interesting album, as one is never sure what is going to happen next, and the warmth of the fretless bass provides direct contrast to the often-staccato guitars. Due to his role in the band, the bass is also mixed higher than one would normally expect, so the gap is between the drums and everything else, as opposed to drums and bass being kept together. This gives the sound a lightness as the bass is often providing counterpoint as opposed to locking down the sound, this means that when he starts playing in a more normal manner the dynamic contrast is higher than would otherwise be the case. But, notes are still often being slid into as opposed to being punched in the manner one would expect from the fretted instrument. Although it may seem I am saying this is all about Hugo, nothing could be further from the truth as this feels like an incredibly complex structured album where everyone knows their part, it is just a different structure to the norm. Well worthy of investigation.