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Beyond
The Embrace – Insect Song
the Hobo review
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Beyond
The Embrace – Insect Song
Label: Metal
Blade
Genre: Gothenburg
Melodic Death/Thrash
Fans Of:
At The Gates, In Flames, Entombed, Opeth
Best Tracks:
Fleshengine Breakdown, Redeemer
Rating: 
Beyond The Embrace made massive waves with
their debut album ‘Against The Elements’ back in 2002. Two years ago the
band was young – but now after touring with the likes of Opeth, Helloween
and Divine Empire, a more mature, confident and comfortable Beyond The
Embrace have headed back into the studio to record their Metal Blade follow-up
with producer Ken Susi (Unearth).
Beyond The Embrace have managed to breathe
some new life into the Gothenburg death/thrash genre; sounding like a perfectly
spliced mixture of And Justice For All…, At The Gates’ untouchable Slaughter
Of The Soul and the more credible early era of In Flames – thrash meets
melodic death in an awesome wave of triple guitarwork.
It would seem that two guitars simply did
not suffice for the band – so they decided to enlist a third. This was
certainly not a fruitless decision. Gouveia (lead), Botelho and Saude are
able to use their three guitars to create some awesome layering techniques
– sometimes in the form of triple harmonic lead lines or deliciously complex
layered thrash riffing.
The vocalist Shawn Gallagher is slightly
reminiscent of Tomas Lindberg – but doesn’t let the vocal constraints of
the genre inhibit him, often switching between more traditional hard rock
singing and impressive death metal growls. For example in …Of Every Strain
Gallagher almost flawlessly mimics the vocal style of Anders Friden, only
to totally discard that style for the awesome metal anthem Redeemer.
Tracks such as Fleshengine Breakdown, Plague
and Redeemer make the band stand in stark contrast to the masses of the
mediocre – boasting complex arrangements, great songwriting and impressive
guitarwork coupled with perfect production and execution. It’s almost as
if Beyond The Embrace have taken the best elements of death metal and thrash
– Opeth’s complexity and songwriting, At The Gates’ powerful vocals and
guitarwork, The Crown’s mid-tempo thrash grooves and Slayer’s layered dual
harmonic leads – and fused them together to create something of death/thrash
dreams.
Here’s to a new millennium band in this
day and age who are still exploring the generic boundaries, implementing
kick-ass lead lines, experimenting with foreign elements and still thrashing,
grinding and grooving with the best of them. It would seem for once the
swirling seas of hype surrounding this particular band are to be believed.
It’s no wonder they just scored a support
gig for Iced Earth’s upcoming US tour – on top of their recent tour with
Prong.
Cheers boys.
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