If Omnium Gatherum’s last two albums consolidated a reputation that wavered slightly after their promising debut, Beyond should grow it significantly as their melancholic melodeath oozes class on album number six.
Powerful guitar tunes, able to sound simultaneously mournful and optimistic, lilt and soothe while the crunching tones and throaty growls provide the weight to generate momentum behind them. Compared to previous albums New World Shadows and The Redshift, they’ve stepped up the strength of personality and the songwriting.
The melodic ideas are explored, adapted, shifted up and down in pace and worked through to a logical conclusion, and mostly within concise works. On the two occasions they do let the ideas run a little – the slightly black metal-inflected Nightwalkers and epic closer White Palace – they pull it off with aplomb. Beyond is hugely enjoyable – a gorgeous slab of heaviness that’ll put a smile on your face.
