By: Tordah

Posted: Jun 19, 2006

If you're into progressive metal then chances are you might already know of Beyond Twilight. Those not familiar with the band yet are in for a real treat. Fronted by the keyboard mastermind Finn Zierler (also in Manticora) the band has slowly grown to become one of the best and most innovative progressive metal bands in the scene. "For The Love Of Art And The Making" is their third and most daring opus so far… experimental, complex and unique. It's safe to say that you've heard nothing like this before.
 
"For The Love Of Art And The Making" is a concept album that consists of one single track, roughly 40 minutes long, divided into many shorter sections. The idea with this album is that you should be able to create your own composition by playing the different sections in another order. Depending on how you put together the different pieces you'll get a new picture of the concept and story. Needless to say, this is a mind-blowing and fascinating concept that I've never before experienced in music. I liked the previous Beyond Twilight albums a lot but they pale in comparison to "For The Love Of Art And The Making". It’s great to see that the band is not afraid of experimenting and keep pushing the boundaries.
 
The music on the album is very complex and deep and filled to the breaking point with different sounds. It takes many spins before you digest it all and even after that you’ll notice new things every time you listen to it that'll make you want to come back and listen to the album again. The atmosphere is dark and twisted from beginning to end, even the "uplifting" melodies sound evil and sinister. If this album were made into a movie it would be a very twisted horror movie that takes places on a psycho carnival or circus where a lot of sick and deranged creatures dwell. There are a lot of orchestrated parts on this album and this is what brings the psycho carnival feeling to my mind. The melodies are happy yet eerily disturbing at the same time. There are also many insane laughs found here and there that enhances this feeling of insanity. The new singer Björn Jansson does a good job filling in the vocal duties after the excellent performances by Jorn Lande and Kelly Carpenter on the previous Beyond Twilight albums. Jansson's voice is more akin to Lande's and he fits in very well with the dark music presented here. Finn Zierler is the musical genius behind Beyond Twilight and he demonstrates his keyboard and composing abilities when they are at an absolute peak. The album has a surprisingly heavy production and the guitar-sound is dark and vicious. The music may not be as guitar-oriented as "Section X" was but that doesn't mean that it doesn't contain killer riffs, because it does.
 
If Beyond Twilight can release a more unique and innovative album than "For The Love Of Art And The Making" I'll eat my own shoes. That’s how amazing it is. It's dark, heavy, complex, crazy, epic and completely original. The only thing that stops me from giving this album a perfect score is that some of the parts don't fit together all that well. Though, it should be expected that there might be some minor flaws when you have a 40 minutes long track of this proportion. Finn Zierler & co have made metal history already so I forgive them. A definite must-have for any metal-fan!

Rating: 9½/10

Massacre Records website

Review of "Section X"

Distributed in Denmark by Target and kindly supplied by Intromental

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