BEYOND

Mark Healy's post rock project "Hibernal" has made some decent sci-fi concept albums through the years, and continues to do so. Since 2013, he has released 8 full-length albums including "Beyond", his latest album to date, in January of 2020. This album consists of 8 tracks, all of them reaching between 6 - 8 minutes. The sound on this album tends to move away from the guitar-heavy post rock sound and leans more towards an ambient and electronic sound. However, the story telling method that he uses on his Hibernal albums continues to use voice actors doing both narration and role playing as before.

The story on this album deals with two astronauts, voiced by Scott Gentle and Faleena Hopkins, who experience a strange reality glitch when trying to travel through hyperspace, with a twist in the plot towards the end of the album. Mark has used these two voice actors in previous albums, and they do bring a nice dramatic feel to the story as the long instrumental sections float along, staying away from the guitar heaviness of Hibernal's past few albums, and this time staying in more of a constant beat with flowing synths and laid back guitar atmospheres.

Mark is not the only instrumentalist on this album. As in some of Hibernal's past albums, Rowan Salt also helps out on instrumentation, though it's not really clear who does what. Mark's strengths lie mostly in storytelling, and this is proven by his plotlines and the fact that he has written many novels with cyberpunk themes. The story on this album is definitely not so involved, but that keeps the listener both intrigued by the easy to follow plot line, and also works to keep from distracting from the cinematic feel of the music.

The first four tracks tend to follow a steady beat with an even flow, not much change between the tracks, and also the music is more atmospheric and not really connected to melodies as much as it is to creating a consistent soundscape. The music becomes more experimental and exploratory from "Canopy of Stars" to the end of the album. Also, the story becomes more intense at this point, and those that are into the story will definitely be listening intently.

Listening to a story in this manner is not my preferred way of listening to music, mainly because, just like most average movies or books, once you have watched or read it, the element of surprise is gone. The same thing applies to me with this story/music album. The music is just not interesting enough to be played for its own sake, its not really that cinematic and expressive until you near the end of the album, but even then, it is a bit subdued and flat. The story itself is great for a single listen, but there just isn't enough there to make me want to keep coming back to this album. Sure, there might be some that enjoy the more electronic feel of the music on this album, but to me, it just isn't interesting enough as each track in the first half isn't diverse enough and in the second half, after the first listen, just isn't intriguing enough to keep me coming back. Basically, when all is said and done, the album just falls into the average range and doesn't really entice me to want to listen to it again.

I first came across Mark Healy at the time of his first album as Hibernal, 'The Machine', and every new release since then is something I look forward to as a major event, and I am yet to be disappointed. What Mark is doing with Hibernal is bringing together his love of post rock music with his innate art of storytelling (he is a well-known author who has published multiple books and short stories, with subjects ranging from post-apocalyptic, dystopian and cyberpunk to space opera). The line-up for this album is the same as the last, 2017's ' The Dark of The City', where Mark is joined on the musical side by Rowan Salt, with the story being told by the same two actors, Scott Gentle and Faleena Hopkins. In fact, all four were involved in the second Hibernal album back in 2014, but there was a larger cast that time.

As with all his albums, this has also been released as a music-only project, but for me it is the combination of the music and the parts being played by the actors which make this what it is. Whenever I get a new Hibernal release I ensure I have time to sit and listen to the whole thing in one go, as I immerse myself in the world being created, the music adding to the storyline and the storyline lifting the music to a new level: it provides the understanding and background one needs to get the most out of it. As a fan of science fiction, and progressive rock music, having both of them combine together in a way such as this is something compelling. The music is keyboard-based, repetitive in the background, with melodies coming over the top. It feels incredibly cinematic, as this is a film for the ears as opposed to a soundtrack, and I found myself really "seeing" the storyline and understanding the struggle.

As with all his albums, this is on Bandcamp (and he has a daft offer available at present to get all his releases for a very cheap price indeed), and fans of his books, science fiction in general, or who want to discover what can happen when the music and actors really do rely on each other, then check this out.