Review Summary: 'Dubcore'; nowhere near as bad as it sounds.
Despite the obvious reservations that come with any electronic metalcore release, admittedly I was curious, if not marginally excited for Beyond All Recognition’s debut album. Despite struggling to take their them seriously after the music video for ‘Characters’, which saw the band dressing up in matching outfits and the synchronized tea-bagging of the ground, a la ‘Attack Attack’, in a musical sense I genuinely enjoyed it. Yes, the drum beats were a carbon copy of Emmure’s ‘Deamons With Ryu’, and much of the remaining material had been covered before by acts such as ‘Of Mice & Men’ and ‘Woe Is Me’, however something still made the song stand out in the extremely niche, yet surprisingly crowded genre of ‘generic metalcore bands with a keyboardist’.
Firstly, the breakdowns were enjoyable, and regardless of the large amount of song time they commanded, each showed enough variation to justify their existence. Secondly, every aspect of the song was spot on, with guitars and drums locking together well, and vocals also hitting the mark with both high screams and guttural, low growls. However it was the electronic, or to be precise, dubstep elements which made the song what it was. Avoiding the usual mistakes of writing a metalcore song, then laying electronics over the top, here the dubstep elements were successfully woven through the structure of the song and felt like they belonged. Instead of coming across as Asking Alexandria, where the electronics sounded forced and unnatural, it reminded me more of The Browning’s ‘Burn This Word’, where the electronics worked with the rest of the band, rather than sounding as if a DJ had accidentally walked into the wrong recording session. The frantic interplay between the ‘dub’ and the ‘core’ kept the energy high and the synths were all of good quality and carefully placed. In layman’s terms, it was ‘heavy as f*ck’, so based on the one song, I got a hold of a copy as soon as it was released. That probably wasn’t necessary.
See the same problem which plagued The Browning’s ‘Burn This World’ also afflicts ‘Drop = Dead’. I wouldn’t go as far as saying they’ve simply recorded the same song eleven times over, however it is the case that half the album is redundant and they could have just packed all of the musical ideas into a six song EP, with little difference in the end result. Most of the songs follow the same path, a dubstep breakdown, a chorus, another dubstep breakdown, then rinse and repeat til the end of the song; and some never even get past that first dubstep breakdown, stretching the one musical idea out for the whole three minutes, leaving the sound of one chugging chord permanently etched into the brain.
That covers the negatives, so now to the positives, which in fairness, there is a decent amount of. A few songs do manage to stand out above the rest; ‘True Story’ showcases fist pumping techno beats and gut wrenching bass drops, one of the heavier songs on the album, while the technical guitar work and sudden shifts in rhythm make, ‘What We’ll Die To Defend’ an explosion from start to finish. One of the other album highlights comes in the form of ‘Brace Yourself’, with a solid clean vocal performance from Bjorn Strid of ‘Soilwork’ and one of the few strong melodic choruses of the whole album. Additionally, the conclusion to ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ hints at ambitions of grandeur, with soaring strings and guitar solos, likewise with ‘Bitch Please’ which concludes with a dubstep ‘solo’ passage, proof that the electronics would pass as legitimate music on their own.
To be honest, there is a lot of good here and some of the material does hint at greater things to come in the future. This would be a perfect party album to have playing in the background, see at a live venue or have the occasional song play on shuffle. Hopefully as they mature as musicians, we’ll see more melody and technicality alongside the breakdowns. Beyond All Recognition may find that ever elusive perfect combination between dubstep and metal in the future, but for the time being that search continues.
Listen To:
Characters
What We'll Die To Defend
Brace Yourself
