Review by Vladimir on April 21, 2023.

Black metal always gets credited for its popularity in Scandinavian countries, but there is also a great number of black metal bands on the Ukrainian and Russian territory which gained some worldwide recognition. Among such examples is the band I will be covering today, and that's Beyond The Grave from Russia. This band relocated from Zhukovsky, Russia to Nha Trang, Vietnam in 2014, but as of lately the band seems to be residing in Pančevo, Serbia. Beyond The Grave isn't the only band which relocated from Russia to Serbia, the second Russian black metal band that also resides in Pančevo is Godcider from Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Beyond The Grave has been actively putting out albums almost every year, with their latest album Let There be Destruction released on March 27th via Hidden Marly Production. Although I always preferred Ukrainian black metal bands, I must say that I was genuinely interested to check this one out. Let's see what lies beyond the grave…

'Food for Powder' kicks things off from the very start with destructive blast beats and hateful tremolo picking riffs, echoing harsh vocals, which from the get-go resonates a very Marduk-style with the music sounding like rapid gunfire with raining bullets. The following track 'Vicegerent of The Devil' includes a slow acoustic intro section which quickly switches to distorted guitars and back to the blast beats, while also throwing in some thrash metal moments and melodic mid-sections that reminded me of Necrophobic. Besides the harsh vocals, there are also vile growls as backing vocals, injecting some death metal as well. Since I already spoke of there being some Necrophobic inspired moments, tracks such as 'Perverse Sacrifice' and 'Obeying the Words of the Dead' also go for that style with evil mid-tempo riffs and double-bass drumming. There are some interesting and catchy mid-tempo riffs on 'Lair of Black Souls' that incorporate very nice melodies on top. The final track 'In the Void' is an instrumental ambient 5-minute outro with acoustic guitars, keyboards and the sound of a roaring blizzard, which presents a nice and cold closure to this mayhemic destruction. I have to say that the songwriting on this album is really dynamic and well-thought from start to finish. It's not strictly going for the extreme tremolo and blast beat formula but it also incorporates some nice melodic and evil dissonant moments that as a whole make a really interesting listening experience. The sound production is quite good, with a nice punch to the guitars and drums that manage to communicate with clarity during faster sections.

The album was really interesting from the moment it started, which in the end proved itself that it was indeed worth it. Beyond The Grave has been around since 1999, and each year they put out something new, there will always be a new horde of fans that will gladly join them. I would consider this band ideal for fans of Marduk and Dark Funeral, but also for fans of bands like Dissection and Necrophobic, due to its dynamic songwriting nature which successfully captived. The album clearly said "let there be destruction", and there was destruction.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10