Beyond Salvation

I received a copy of Beyond Salvation by Doom Syndicate about two years ago from a friend in the music industry, as I host an underground internet metal show that showcases some of today‘s up and coming underground metal bands. Beyond Salvation the title song received so many requests on my show that it now stays in regular rotation.

One of the first songs on the disc, Fearless in the Face of Death opens with heavy riffs, gut wrenching guitar solos, and a catchy chorus that even your grandmother would hum., well my grandmother. After the first track you won’t believe its possible for it to get any harder but it just gets faster and more technical from beginning to end. The entire CD is packed with pulsing blast beats, a booming bass line, the vocalist has the broadest range of any metal front man I have yet to hear, and guitar solo’s that have concert goers bowing down to Doom for their awesome technical ability. At least they did at the 2007 and 2008 Hard Rock Fests in Roanoke Virginia, when they headlined in front of thousands of fans.

Doom Syndicate won’t disappoint and their latest release Beyond Salvation is a refreshing change from the run of the mill boring metal releases that big record labels are mass producing everyday. This is definitely unlike anything else you will find on shelves at music stores or online. It takes a lot of talent and skill for a band to pull off a complete range of music like this with such an ingenious writing formula. Calling a bands fans ignorant is like saying these reviews are as worthless as the website they are written on. I for one am thrilled to see that bands like Doom Syndicate are thriving and doing well, it’s a sign that the true underground is alive and well.

The first thing you think when you put this CD on for the first time is that it's going to be somewhat of a 'widdly' album, judging by the instant noodling being one of the first things your ears tune into.

That would be wrong though as I think it's pretty safe to say Doom Syndicate have a wide range of influences, broader than just limited to the death metal spectrum.
There's clear nods here to old school thrash bands - both in terms of the semi-regular high(er) vocals along with some of the riffs - as well as more recent bands like Kataklysm and Kentucky's Abominant.

There are also more brutal death leanings to the songs as well, meaning that pretty much each song can have quite a varied texture almost to the degree you feel like the band are trying to squeeze ALL their favourite bands into one song.
For example, one moment there might be an adrenalised thrash down memory lane in nod to the likes of Exodus, the next there'll be a sudden-yet-smooth tempo change and it'll change to a more regular death metal chugging riffage.

To be perfectly honest, as much as I would like to be able to thoroughly disect, diagnose and analyse each song to thoroughly explain this, quite honestly hyperbole and paragraphs alone won't illustrate the point.

The fact is Doom Syndicate clearly have numerous influences right the way across the board and aren't content with just sounding like they belong in just one pigeon-hole. They are far more content with just writing songs which, whether intentionally or not, amalgamate all their influences in one particular molten if not entirely cohesive lump.

To be fair, this cross-pollenation works in their favour initially as it makes you sit up that little bit and wonder where the music's going to go next, but by around midway through the album even the most ignorant listener will start to become pretty atuned to the formula and start seeing through it.

So to summarise, whilst this is not necessarily a BAD album per se, it's by no means essential nor probably one that you'll return to time after time.