SECTION X

I shall say first off that BEYOND TWILIGHT have a great album here with the release of SECTION X. SECTION X is a brilliant conceptual album based on some pretty heavy and interesting Sci-fi themes and concepts. In fact; I believe a prologue is needed in this review, so one can get a nice feel for SECTION X's brilliant yet bizarre storyline. Believe me, it adds to the mood for one to actually really want to listen to the album. After all, it's the storyline that got me hooked... in the first place. ;)

The story of SECTION X is about a scientist who discovers Brain Mapping, which is a process that tells us how much of the human brain we use % wise. The scientist (who is in fact nameless) learns that human beings use just 10% of the brain itself. Furthermore, the scientist reveals a cunning and cleaver way to unlock and transfer a persons thoughts, dreams, feelings and visions to any of the unused portions of the brain. By being able to construct this 'window to the brain' the scientist proceeds to create a clone of himself. Going further down the spiral of this radical experiment, the Scientist transfers the contents of Albert Einstein's brain into the clone of himself and the only way this can be done is through virtual reality in the scientist Lab. Now where is gets iffy is that the clone's brain operates exactly like The Scientist Brain, so the thirst and desire for knowledge becomes an excessive and evil fulfillment. The Clone embarks on stealing parts of people's minds who are great musicians, politicians (I've never heard of a great politician) and anyone who has incredible supernatural abilities. Needless to say, the Clone had gone Section H and has acquired a taste for evil, which the clone sees as the most beautiful and purest thing in the world...ah oh! Meanwhile, now that the scientist discovered his clone has gone into a mad stupor by killing and ravishing any human being of worth in his path of reality, The Scientist of course wants to make the clone extinct. The scientist devises a plan to disguise himself as a beautiful woman to eliminate the clone from using and terrorizing human souls. In the end, the Scientist succeeds in killing the clone but when he does kill his doppelgänger his soul begins to crumble in the most unbearable, terrible pain imaginable. Thus, The Scientist soul begins to drown into an ocean of pain creating the most painful death any human has ever been able to experience. Wow! And this is all conveyed through the music!!

Sound like an intriguing story spun into a musical theater of drama and progressive metal!? I should hope so.  Moving on, and to get into the album itself musically, SECTION X is an album that is fueled and centered around the leadership of FINN ZIERLER's keyboards. The keys are lush, vast and extremely creative. I must say, I do enjoy when a band, such as BEYOND TWILIGHT, has a sound that is propelled by synths and keyboards. Its an uncommon thing in Prog-Metal where this occurs cause its usually the Guitars or guitarist that takes center stage. It's the Keys by ZIERLER that dictates the pace of SECTION X, but fans of the acoustic and electric guitar will still be elated with the Guitar mastery of ANDERS EXO KRAGH and rhythm guitarist JACOB HANSEN. Yup. You guessed it! BEYOND TWILIGHT is a double axe wielding guitar band that can shred your face off with some pretty nifty noodling and arpeggios that are so wonderfully high and exalted in the final track of the album, SECTION X. Their is even a choir to back up KELLY 'SUNDOWN' CARPENTER's vocals and stunning chorus line...'This is the wiiiiiilllllllll...forevermooooooooore!!' truly, the SECTION X final track has it all and is the best track on the album. It conveys so much emotion through the incredible musicianship of BEYOND TWILIGHTS capabilities and styles.   But, there is still more to the album than one superb 9:00min epic. The opening track 'BE CAREFUL IT'S MY HEAD TOO' is a wonderful little SCI-FI dialog that explains the cloning procedure is under way, then not long after the 2nd track 'THE PATH OF DARKNESS' gets going and really wakes up the listener with KELLY CARPENTER's moody, screeching and haunting vocals that is accompanied by beautiful keyboards solos and a terrific chorus to the song that takes place for the first time in about 1:35min with in the song. All in all, I have to say that this dark, Sci-Fi album by BEYOND TWILIGHT has some extremely great vocal chorus's placed throughout the album of SECTION X. It's a shorter album being a little under 50min with 8 tracks in all, but the album still gets its point across to the listener with in that time frame just like the ANNO DOMINI album by RIVERSIDE. Sometimes tighter is better. Anyway, the Chorus highlights are in the tracks THE PATH OF DARKNESS, ECSTASY ARISE and of course in the grand finalé SECTION X. KELLY CARPENTER's vocals are simply sublime and he sounds much better when he reaches for the softer, melodic side to his voice.  Another notable mention in the album is the 6th track PORTRAIT F IN DARK WATERS, which is an absolute stunning piano/keyboard solo instrumental from ZIERLER. Here, in this instrumental, you will be showcased with the mastery of ZIERLER's keyboard playing and composition writing. I was truly taken back by how much sheer skill ZIERLER has as a musician and writer. A very big highlight is PORTRAIT F, but it's sadly a short track clocking a little over 2min 30seconds....needless to say I wish it was longer! Ok, so I guess that this is where I will make my disappointment clear on this album.  ZIERLER should have made his instrumental longer and I also felt that SHADOW SELF and THE DARK SIDE were mediocre tracks that didn't blow me away...probably because the chorus was weak in both ;) That is all I can say where I was a bit unhappy, but the album as a whole is rock solid by tying together a very complex story and concept with in a musical theater of sound. 

In Conclusion, SECTION X merits a 4/5 for musicianship and originality from my point of view. I think a lot of SCI-FI junkies will really appreciate the subject matter and fans of NEO PROG will absolutely love the keyboardist/song writer and composer in  FINN ZIERLER. A real treat! Anyhow, this album comes highly recommended from yours truly, and i urge those who decide to give this SCI-FI beast a go to turn the lights off and play it very loud. :) 

In the name of prog....enjoy with all your heart. 

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