Beyond Creation - The Aura

In a genre chock full of more than capable musicians it is easy for a technical death metal band to blast your ears into oblivion with their immense technical proficiencies, but what makes a tech death band great is their ability to combine this raw talent with a greater sense of song writing aptitude.  This is why bands like Fleshgod Apocalypse, Gorod, and Obscura are at the forefront of the genre. They blend this technicality with more progressive elements and make the songs more than just raw talent.

Beyond Creation have been technically speaking active for about 8 years now but they have yet to release an album until this year. I cannot say what took them that long to make an album, but I must say that I am very pleased with the results of their effort. The Aura is an album teeming with immense skill, blistering solo’s and top notch instrumentation all around. The production all around is top tier and this album although being a debut album is on par with the bands I previously mentioned in terms of both quality and ability.

One thing that really shines on this album is the bass guitar. The bass guitarist is easily the most underrated member of most metal bands, but Beyond Creation have placed a large amount of trust in their bassist’s skill and it pays off. Dominic 'Forest' Lapointe, who previously played in the band Augury, employs a six string fretless bass on this album and uses it incredibly well, often taking his guitar to the forefront of the music with awesome bass solos. His bass can be heard throughout the entire album and it is easily one of the best uses of a best guitar in recent memory.

The rest of the band is not undeserving of praise either. Particularly Guyot Begin-Benoit who absolutely kills it on drums, switching tempos and time signatures at the flick of a wrist and wildly hammering away at blast beats and awesome fills. His drumming pushes the album forwards while simultaneously holding it together. The vocals on this album are in no way inventive for the genre, they tend to sound a bit like any other tech death band out there, but they are well executed and fit the band’s sound perfectly, and it a bit more impressive to know that vocalist Simon Girard is playing an 8 string guitar while doing a vocals. Girard and  Kevin Chartré cover the guitar part of the album rather well, tossing in more than enough blistering guitar solos and plenty of well written driving riffs.

Beyond Creation have been around for a little while but this year is essentially the real start to their career, and frankly they could not have started their career with a better album. This album is solid from start to finish and is easily one of the best tech death albums this year. It focused, well written, and filled to the brim with excellent musicianship. The Aura is not an album to be missed.

If you have Spotify feel free to listen to the album in full now:

Beyond Creation - The Aura