Beyond Terror Beyond Grave - Salvation | Extinction

Rating: 7.3

Country: Australia

Genre: Grindcore

Release Date: 2007

Track list:
1. 002618
2. Fading Light
3. Smiling in the Face of Despair
4. Reinvention Ghost
5. Recycled Carnage [mp3]
6. Shards
7. Ultimatum
8. Surveillance
9. Defeated
10. Erosion
11. Divinity Collapse
12. Democracy
13. Machine
14. Born and Raised
15. Unattainable
16. Empty
17. Apathy & Acceptance
18. Gaze of Finality
19. 022617

Band Website: Beyond Terror Beyond Grace

Beyond Terror Beyond Grace - Extinction | Salvation

Bart - Vocals
Ben Terror - Guitar
Alex - Bass
Steve - Drums

After first hearing this stripped-down aural assault of fused old-meets-new grindcore with a fiendishly adept drummer I frantically re-read my review of their Still Human, Still Humane?' EP from 2005. Nothing damages a reviewer's credibility more than failing to spot a latent talent then having to write a sycophantic follow-up with egg on their face. Steve has surpassed even my suspicions about him with a blistering performance that puts the percussion guy at the nerve centre of this grind entity. The other guys provide muscle and raw passion in crates. The band's blending of grind, death and punk is more focused and revitalising but the downright corrosive feel of the music adds a dimension to otherwise spartan riffing (asphyxiating claustrophobia is a more usual side-effect of albums recorded on-the-fly like this).

Underneath the higher register vocals sparking off "Fading Light" are scratchy, organic and shrill guitar overtones as per classic Swedish death, but of course detuned and massive in the modern way; Rotten Sound could therefore be something the band have been getting into of late. Low note illegibility is of course inevitable at certain points (with "Reinvention Ghost" suffering more than most), but the intensity carries the listener through the uncertain moments. The third track has a rumbling Bolt Thrower riff but is overshadowed by the blasting drums and vocals racing each other. It is not easy to retch out hate at this speed, particularly when the lyrics are discontinuous fragments written purely for malodorous effect. "Recycled Carnage" has more flowing lyrics ("the cold concrete fabric of our society is unable to redeem destiny") and a good mix of speeds. There is outright pace, stabbing punk-grind with snappy drums and a stomping pit-groove given menace by throaty death vocals.

"Ultimatum" is my personal favourite. The drums expertly extract a sophisticated groove from a simple chugging riff prior to a dynamic section that reminded me, bizarrely, of the pre-chorus of Nevermore's "I, Voyager". The staccato crunch and syncopated ride precedes a dual roared crescendo of "Tear apart the sky!" that combines vitriol and majestic ascent. Guitar duality and dissonance is featured more in the latter half of the album, with "Erosion" leaning slightly toward psychopathic grind as a result rather than self-righteous hate in the true grindcore style. The direct approach is demonstrated best in "Defeated", a bilious anti-religious attack and a lyrical mini-triumph. We've heard it all before but rarely with such integrity and defiance.

The candid song structures, anarchistic words spat like venom and resistance to guitar technicality are perfect counterpoints to the pristine and fastidious percussion patterns, about which the hatred coils tightly. The feeling of repetition beyond the halfway mark is a let-down, alongside the main problem that the guitar and bass must have more to offer to take matters to the next level and provide band longevity (Mumakil's Customised Warfare is a case in point that vitriol and scattershot fretwork can be combined to heighten impact). But to paraphrase "Shards" - "does this suffice to break your stream of light?" - it sure does.

September 30th, 2008