Back on my review of Wielded Steel‘s killer Sins of Your Domain EP, I rattled off a bunch of hardcore bands I had/have been jamming, including two French bands: Glassbone whose Ruthless Savagery EP is also killer, and Beyond The Styx, who have been around for a while with 3 other albums and some EPs to their name before this effort.
I’ll get straight to it and, like this 25-minute bruiser, make it short. This is super beefy, metallic hardcore that will appeal to (sans the clean vocals) fans of Dying Wish, Boundaries, Kublai Khan TX, and most certainly Knocked Loose, down to the higher-pitched screams of Emile Dupitie, which might get grating for some folks after a while. Research and purchase of the band’s prior albums shows he used to mix it up with a gruffer bellow and a lower register scream, but it appears he does not do that anymore. Some gang chants break things up, though.
Musically, though, this is some tough shit. It’s got that earlier Gatecreeper/Fuming Mouth, almost Swedish death metal guitar tone, and wee hints of death metal (though not quite as much) like their countrymates Glassbone or even Bodysnatcher, and every single tune kicks you in the teeth with some sort of massive groove or breakdown.
Whether it’s opener “Dust Off”, trundling “Bystander”, “Never Ending War”, “Chaosystem”, “ANYONE” (even with its short atmospheric intro); “Kiss of the Cobra” (with arguably the album’s hardest hitting, albeit short breakdown), “Deadlock V”… fuck it, all of them; they are all mid-paced, loping, lumbering tracks that are perfect lifting/workout tunes. Or tunes to start a revolution, too.
Get to it.
