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BEYOND THE EMBRACE 'Insect Song' (Metal Blade) (2004)
This is the second effort from Beyond The Embrace, a band that originates from the town of Massachusetts – a place that’s gradually becoming the creative Mecca of many promising bands like All That Remains and Killswitch Engage. The members of the band were in their early twenties when their debut album "Against The Elements" was released. I never had the chance to get my hands on that release, so I had to rely on the many different reviews that I read on the net, most of which were referring to a band whose music was balancing between classic Maidenesque guitar melodies and Groovy Swedish-influenced guitar riffs.
Well, if that’s the case, nothing has really changed in the band’s second release "Insect Song". Beyond The Embrace going through the most energetic period of their career, and that also reflects in their music. The opening track of the album "Fleshengine Breakdown" is moving into the road that was paved by bands like Entombed and At The Gates. That translates to fast, groovy guitars and nice melodic chords – quite a catchy song that definitely deserves that important and difficult position of introducing the album.
When the band decides to go aggressive, they do it with style, and when they decide to go melodic they allow all their classic Metal influences to come to the surface. When you listen to "Plague" don’t get confused – the man that does the vocals is not James Hetfield. Now that I mentioned this, there are quite a few moments in this album that you will witness the influence of late Metallica in the music of the band, but it all happens in good faith. Beyond The Embrace is not just another cover band: they have their influences (as all musicians do), but it is obvious that they make an effort in adjusting them to their music rather than going for the easy solution of "borrowing" themes that have lead bands like Metallica to enormous commercial success.
Some other songs that I personally found quite interesting are the "Redeemer", a song that displays a flamboyant Maidenesque guitar solo, an acoustic composition called "Ashes", and also "Absent" which has to offer some interesting moments of distorted guitar melodies. Ken Susi (Unearth) handled the production of the album, and even though this was the second time that he was working with the band, he didn’t quite manage to create the atmosphere that these ten compositions really deserved. The album cover is an interesting modern version of the one that Voivod used in Negatron, but again I don’t see how it reflects the style of the band.
Well, things are very simple: if you are a fan of the above-mentioned styles, you will really enjoy "Insect Soul". The band seems to be moving in the right direction, so let us hope that they’ll keep up the good job.
***½
Review by John Stefanis
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