This is a three track CDR in a slimline DVD case. Two of the tracks are remixes. One of those remixes is Beyond remixing a track by Stijn Van Cauter, and the other remix he is deconstructing his own work. But first up is the virgin piece "Blightstrider." It's a 12 minutes piece born of deep sub bass tones, scattered distant whispered vocals and the clattering of stones falling down deep crevasses. The piece pretty much sticks to those types of sounds throughout its duration, but there are some distant rhythmic hints, and subtle melody that creep in very far back in the mix. This helps keep you drawn in right about the moment when you feel like you've gotten the point. The sound of wind gusts come in and build to finish the track out. "In Pain (TSYA remix)" is next at just shy of 11 minutes. This is more animated right out of the gate with panning loops of metallic tones and feedback, still presented in a rather ambient fashion, but with more bites than anything in the previous track. This swirling collision of loops and cycles swell and shift for the first half of the track without really bringing much new into play. They gently fade back and a different collection of loops and cycles emerge. Late in the track a low end throb comes in and provides a nice bit of body beneath the higher range squeaking loops, but at that point its impact is a bit defeated because the track has gone on so long relative unchanged that I'm not sure I cared anymore. The ten minute "Torn (Decay Remix)" is the final track, and clearly the noisiest of the lot. The liner notes say this is a track the project had recorded for another releases that has been "remodeled via tape destruction." It again utilizes evolving loops, using heavily saturated distorted low end and cutting feedback tones and remains rather set in the presentation that it begins with throughout. Because of the crunchy edges to the distortion you are given the impression more is happening, and it feels denser overall than the other pieces in part because of the thick low end. In the later part of the track and synth melody comes in that is a nice touch, and helps to make this track the standout of the three for me. None of this stuff is bad, and there are some good atmospheres created here but I don't really hear anything that stamps this as Beyond I guess. Because the approach is relatively simple and repetitive there isn't a lot there to provide identity for the project and it comes off as being a decent effort but nothing you haven't really heard before.

I’m not sure that reviewing a funeral doom ambient recording at 11 in the morning after 4 hours sleep is a particularly good idea but the prospect of another Beyond CD, again in immaculate packaging, was all too tempting, despite the risks!

Lovely windy sounds open up ‘Blightstrider’ before eerie whispers and a tense rumbling background take over the main section. An incredible piece that slowly builds, progresses and gains power like slow moving lava. The only thing marring this for me are the occasional clips of distortion in the production that could do with cleaning up. other than that there are some spooky echoes in here.

‘In Pain’ is a remix and is a sharp, screeching piece to set your life on edge but has enough reverberating hypnosis to pull you in. Some great distortion late on is the highlight as this looping song sounds like a pendulum in pain of its existence. ‘Torn’ is a reworking of ‘Pain’ from Beyond’s ‘Shadeworld’ release and is another quite noisy affair, drenched in feedback and more shatteringly high noise, with hints of melody reminding me a lot of Third Eye Foundation here.

More ambient than doom really here and with some quite bright sounds, rather uplifting in places, especially the closing track. Another top recording.

I did [review] their last title a while back and I remember liking it well. Hell I like this one as well. More Minimal Bleak Drone with very far off whispering vocals and do you know what, it works at being very god damn unsettling my friends. After listening to these 3 very long tracks I'm convinced that this is what the dead must hear and feel for the 1st few days before you truly know you have passed to the other side. The sorrow, The Loneliness, The Fear and then Anger, Isolation and contempt for all those around you. As these maddening thoughts and sounds just will never let you rest and you can't understand why. Jesus this 2nd track is really making me want to of and hurt someone. I think you job is complete Beyond. You crack my broken phycee even more. Well done.

A sort of experimental ep for Beyond, who usually plays straight dark ambient drones (see the review of "Shadeworld" in the archive). "Blightstrider" is actually a very obscure industrial-ambient track, with bass-heavy synths, ghostly voices buried within the mix, and metallic clankings. Pretty well done, and truly oppressive - if you like Nordvargr and the likes, you'll probably dig this one. The other two tracks (one being a remix of Stijn van Cauter's "In pain", the other of Beyond's own "Torn") are less appealing to my taste, being overloaded noise versions of droning tracks - they're probably ok for what they are, but they're not atmospheric nor rabid enough to make them stand out. I definitely prefer Beyond in his dark ambient vein.

Bloated tumescent zepplins sheathed in flayed human skin scour the skies, patrolling and by sheer presence controlling. Slivers of synthesised violin pierce the occluded skies, absorbed by the epidermal monstrosities; ‘Torn’ is a lazy drift, disassociate as it is far from the earth. Beyond undulates the intent for the entire album – project even – as one of drift, drone and expanse, the horizon almost as illimitable as the ephemeral reverb. ‘Within’ picks up with broad strokes tingled with the first note of disharmony, subtle tintinnabulation punctures oceans of drone so tumid your ears feel as if to drown or implode. Symphony gutters hell’s demesne, sneering minor cadences at the fringes of the swollen air. Just what is this malignant sentience inside? A cymbal rung three times initiates ‘Canyon’, replete with drones, yet here they are far less linear, snaking and curving, intertwining each other while the hiss of cymbals crowns the dirge. Pulsing dark undercurrents bed an environment of rapidly shifting memories and thoughts, the ‘Void’ is anything but empty, as Beyond offers its most animated track of the album. Snatches of choir chime in the distance and hulking drones bellow to change the path of the listener into the darker realms of the track. The last track, ‘Ancient’, resumes the drawn-out journey, misting the ambience with barely audible bells and chimes, yet near the end is an unexpected, and given the tenor of the album is somewhat, brutal climax.

An album for a lazy rest or relaxed substance-induced torpor, Beyond would not offend despite its bleak moments, the motions are slow and the melody simple, perfect for headphones (as is recommended inside the case).

Released in a DVD case with wraparound black and white artwork of microscopic cell-like structures the package includes a printed card with track-listing and CDR with printed label. Minimal design and information.

Only the hushed remnants of memories remain on a blasted planet, they drip like liquid into vast and empty buildings, crusted in the choke of decay. ‘Blightstrider’ is the first sign of something not yet fully Beyond here, and even the artist admits this release is something quite removed from the desolate drifts of solemn ambience; here noise reigns, excoriating dead landscapes in soundscape. From ‘Blightstriders’ simmering buzz, ‘In Pain (TYSA remix)’ truly stakes its strident obliqued antithesis to earlier Beyond work with its sawing of glass to and fro. It is like the sharpening of an axe, which only gets louder and more fervid, that the world shall soon feel in ‘Torn (decay remix)’. Death comes in an obliterating barrage of shuddering noise punctuating with regular bending sine tones. Noise fragments into cycling schizophrenia that is barely held in check by the relentless onslaught, frequently taken over into high-pitched feedback scream.

While only clocking in at thirty minutes this is a welcome broadening of Beyond’s work while retaining the husks of desolation and faint poignant strains of melody of previous releases.

A limited edition of sixty, this album is released in a slim DVD package with black and white – mostly black – minimal design.

Three lengthy tracks of sinister, minimal dark ambient noise from this German project. Opener "Blightstrider" is a new piece that runs 12 minutes of very consistent, windy low-end drones with some faint sounds in the distance that sound perhaps like spoken samples, though you can't make out anything very specific at all. Towards the latter portion of the song a little bit of very quiet melody seems present, though it could all be simply an illusion. Following is "In Pain", a remix of a TYSA track, which gets louder and makes more intense use of stereo panning with some very faintly distorted reverberations and an ethereal sort of texture. The volume level sort of flows to and fro, but the piece is still incredibly repetitious (in a good way) with little or no variation from its underlying rhythm and structure. Closer "Torn (Decay Remix)" is a reworked selection from Beyond's "Shadeworld" release, again louder and more aggressive than its predecessor. It's also a little more varied in texture, with some eerily melodic bits of piercing feedback, throbbing low-end, etc. Later in the composition the melodic aspects become slightly more dominant, and the landscape definitely makes far more drastic shifts (over time) than the other two selections – which is nice, but somehow a little less emotionally bleak than the other two songs. The CD-R comes in a slim DVD sized case with xeroxed artwork (hand-numbered of only 60 copies) and minimal text credits. There's not much to look at it, but I suppose it works well enough. Apparently this disc sells for a mere $3 (perhaps a little more with shipping), which is quite nice to see in these days where numerous labels are charging exorbitant prices for small CD-R runs. This is a very nice release. I honestly haven't heard much in the way of experimental noise lately that's taken my interest, but this is my first exposure to Beyond and I'd be pleased to hear more. Good work.

Beyond - Shadeworld (self-released)
A self-released cd by Beyond which comes in a dvd-case. 'Shadeworld' contains five long soundscapes in a rather minimal style. Slow drones, sparse synth sounds, only the most necessary sound layers. Your fantasy has to do the rest to imagine a 'shadeworld'. Desolate music with a strong feel of isolation. My favourite track 'Within' sounds rather solem and ritual and the deep bass makes my speakers tremble. Beyond creates soundscapes for patient people. The music is not spectacular, sometimes you even forget that it is playing. Perhaps therefore Beyond advives on the sleeve to listen with headphones. It makes me think a little of the dark ambient releases on the Cyclic Law label, though with an even more empty sound.
"Shadeworld" is available via NULLL Records.

Beautiful artwork accompanies this release from Beyond. In its DVD casing, white on black patterning is incredibly striking.

Funeral doom, or drone, is a very hard genre to get your head around, 5 songs, 72 minutes, and probably very little in the way of songs, or even much in construction, on the face of it at least. Artists like Until Death Overtakes Me or Sunn O))) manage to construct things very well, and in the opening few minutes of "Torn", Beyond seem to be another one to add to the list with some fantastically dark, overpowering, bass filled ambience. The mood is almost unbearable at times, being solitary and intense. Delicate sounding strings enter the fray fully at around the six minute mark, as the background bass plods on, slowing the clock right down.

Notes are drawn out for a long time, tunes are minimal but they are there if you can take the time and the energy to sit down and listen, they are hidden in amongst bleak, endless gaps of nothingness, which make the notes even more poignant and fulfilling. "Within" is even more basic and empty in comparison to the veritably bouncy opener, "Void" is a stand out piece in its 21 minutes existence, with more strange noises, pausing life with its long decays and bell chiming sounds nearer the end. Awesomely tense.

To gain full idea of what Beyond are all about, you need to be laid still, on your bed, lights out, candle flickering, headphones on or at least turned up rather loud, to get the full reverberations of the notes and to be in the mindstate and pace that the tracks are in as well.

Difficult, but in comparison to some of the funeral doom genre I have heard, this one rates pretty highly, especially with the track "Void.

Debut cdr release for this new-born German dark ambient project. I'd label it "funeral doom ambient" as it sounds like the ambient equivalent of bands like Until Death Overtakes Me, plus a healthy dose of classic dark drones (Lustmord, Amon, Svartsinn...). Exactly like funeral doom, you can find it, from time to time or during the same listening session, extremely fascinating or quite boring after a while, also because of its mammoth length. But this release is mostly good, and well balanced. The low, bass-heavy drones are mixed with depressive key symphonies, very funeral doom-sounding, and these are probably the characteristic I liked less. But as the cd progresses, the pure droning atmosphere prevails, and it's nice to tune out and drift along. A new release and a couple of sampler appearances are in the works.

Ok so I went to the box today to see what came and here was this little gem from Beyond. Deep, dark hypnotic drone meets dark ambient . The synths are a crawling pace. They ebb and flow in such a way that there's a strong haunting quality about this release. I'm very impressed by the delicate nature of it all. Beyond has presented a world of their own through this style of sonic minimalism I've not heard in quite some time. There not really the Doom styling that the artist is trying to talk about here as much as the more ambient side. Never the less as i said it's a stunning tapestry of sounds and feelings that you can't fake as it wouldn't sound like this. This is music that should be absorbed with headphones or at very least a dark room with your eyes closed and let it take you.