ALGORYTHM

This is the third album from Canadian technical death metal act Beyond Creation, but it isn't hard to also why they are listed on PA as yet again we have a band pushing musical boundaries. While the band for the most part is similar in many ways to the likes of Nile, with complex intertwined blistering guitar passages combined with over the top drum fills, and vocals which are guttural and raw, what really makes this stand out for me is the bass. I guess that Hugo Doyon-Karout knows he is playing in an extreme metal act, but someone seems to have forgotten to have told him what his role is supposed to be, as not only is he playing a fretless bass, but he is all over the place. Sometimes he joins in with the guitars on the complex interchanges, leaving drummer Philippe Boucher to keep it all together by himself, while at others he has the temerity to play lead solos over the top of Simon Girard and K'vin Chartr'. Doesn't he know that the role of a bassist is to provide the platform for others, not be at the forefront of what is going on?

Needless to say, the result makes for an incredibly fascinating and interesting album, as one is never sure what is going to happen next, and the warmth of the fretless bass provides direct contrast to the often-staccato guitars. Due to his role in the band, the bass is also mixed higher than one would normally expect, so the gap is between the drums and everything else, as opposed to drums and bass being kept together. This gives the sound a lightness as the bass is often providing counterpoint as opposed to locking down the sound, this means that when he starts playing in a more normal manner the dynamic contrast is higher than would otherwise be the case. But, notes are still often being slid into as opposed to being punched in the manner one would expect from the fretted instrument. Although it may seem I am saying this is all about Hugo, nothing could be further from the truth as this feels like an incredibly complex structured album where everyone knows their part, it is just a different structure to the norm. Well worthy of investigation.

"Algorythm" is the third full-length studio album by Canadian, Quebec based technical/progressive death metal act Beyond Creation. The album was released through Season of Mist in October 2018. It´s the successor to "Earthborn Evolution" from 2014. There´s been one lineup change since the release of "Earthborn Evolution" as bassist Dominic Lapointe has left and has been replaced by Hugo Doyon-Karout. Lapointe is a pretty prolific musician on the Quebec music scene having been a member of/or is still a member of acts like Atheretic, Augury, and First Fragment, making an audible impact with his fretless bass playing, so it´s big shoes Doyon-Karout has to fill.

Stylistically Beyond Creation continues the high energy technical death metal style with progressive songwriting ideas of the last couple of albums. The fretless bass provides the music with an audible bass presence and a fluid organic flow. "Algorythm" is in most other ways not organic at all. It´s actually a pretty sterile sounding release and the mellow excursions into jazz/fusion and progressive rock/metal territories do nothing to change that perception of the music. Beyond Creation are incredibly well playing and perform many virtuosic guitar riffs- and leads, the above mentioned technical fretless bass playing, a technical drumming attack, and vocals which shift between deep growling and higher pitched screaming/snarling. To my ears the most valid reference is Obscura, but the aforementioned Augury is another.

The sound production is massive, layered, and detailed, but I´m not blown away by the sound, which for all its well sounding qualities ends up presenting the music in a slightly powerless fashion. So upon conclusion "Algorythm" is a bit more shallow in the songwriting- and in the performance deparments than the band´s earlier releases and paired with a sound production which doesn´t provide the music with the needed boost of power, "Algorythm" ultimately comes off a less accomplished release than the preceding albums from Beyond Creation. It´s still a good quality technical/progressive death metal release, but it´s not exactly among the elite albums of the genre. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives).