Partly mired in the middle of Nuclear Blast releasing endless mediocre stuff like Agathodaimon, Crematory, Dismal Euphony, Night In Gales, and Sculpture, saturating the scene with more sugary, Gothic melodic death metal and synths and partly due to the bands more somber take on the genre, they just never really ‘made it’, especially in the US.

With a style of more laid back and emotional, almost gothic melodic death metal, the duo of vocalist Matte Andersson and drummer Erik Andersson (no relation) seemed to have hit their creative and emotional zenith with their final release in 2001. Despite featuring on 6 new songs a two do-overs (“Sea of Dream” and “Tear it Down”), Way Beyond was and is a classy release that adds to Metal Mind’s sold stable of re-issues.

The 24 bit re-master allows the (at the time) rather unique synths to breathe an air of despondency into Godgory’s generally mid paced take on melodic death metal. Rather than focus on urgent galloping, bouncy riffs (though there are some here and there such as “Payback” and “Farewell”) or solos, Godgory rendered their metal through more somber hues that relied on patient, semi doomy structures, including a deeper, gruff growl from Matte.

Rending, melancholy Tracks like “The Final Journey”, “Another Day”, “Tear it Down” and knee wilting harmonies of “Caressing the Flames” hearken back to a more pure era of metal and show a time and band that focus on song writing from the heart rather than a trend. Admittedly the rather simple and repetitive gait of closer “Holy War” is a bit off a let down, but the heartfelt previous 7 tracks make this a pleasant treasure from the start of the decade.