BEYOND THE BLACK-Heart Of The Hurricane

Napalm Records

The third album of this German melodic metal band contains 15 new tracks and again this album is a mix of symphonic metal, melodic metal and rather “overproduced” (read: too cheesy) pop metal. Singer Jennifer Haben is always in the spotlight and because of her voice and other obvious musical influences Beyond The Black always sounds like bands like e.g. Within Temptation. This album offers a great musical start with excellent tracks like ,,Hysteria’’, ,,Through The Mirror’’ and the rather bombastic ,,Beneath A Blackened Sky’’, but unfortunately from there on the musical level declines and the band only comes up with rather mediocre tracks. ,,My God Is Dead’’ (boring power ballad), ,,Dear Death’’ (up tempo with very familiar riffs) and ,,Freedom’’ are rather run of the mill songs and are only there to “fill” the album…. Beyond The Black is very popular and successful in Germany and I can understand why and ‘Heart Of The Hurricane’ is probably their best effort so far, but I tend to get bored with this album after a couple of spins, as most of the songs sound too much alike and I miss that certain spirit and “own “ sound. Having said, that I can also imagine that if you like symphonic metal with female lead vocals and catchy pop metal tunes, then you will definitely like ‘Heart Of The Sunrise’.  So, try it and see if you like it, or not….; listening tips: ,,Hysteria’’  and ,,Heart Of The Hurricane’’.