Beyond Creation - The Aura

Beyond Creation are a technical death metal band, among the finer gymnasts of the genre. This album is a polished exhibition of impressive technical chops, mechanically performed and very complicated. This band can do a lot with their skills, and they most certainly do a lot. The problem is that all of it is boring, unmemorable wankery.

Leads and licks are not riffs. While some guitar acrobats can turn shredding into a hook and build a song around it - such as Jeff Loomis' "Miles of Machines" - this band aimlessly wanks and turns dissonant guitar noodling into the main attraction. When the guitars repeat a riff a few times, the bass endlessly doodles underneath. The bass tracks throughout the album are constantly wandering aimlessly - these aren't the bass tracks for this album, someone must have put this guy's instructional DVD into the mix instead. This guy contests Steve Vai as the biggest wanker in music!

In addition to the riffs being boring, most of the album demonstrates a poor habit of poorly and quickly transitioning from one part to the next, with hardly a rhyme nor reason other than the need to shove more riffs into the mix above the never-ending bass solo. There's hardly anything resembling a decent hook, everything is boring and forgettable, a technical show that reminds you that these fellows can play their instruments really well, but they can't write a song that's not the riffing equivalent of a tire fire. They shred it and forget it. Showed off that lick? Good, only 187 more to go!

Beyond Creation have no sense of making good music, they basically made a death metal album that's the equivalent to watching video after video of "sickest guitar and bass solos" on YouTube for the sake of showing off and called it a death metal album. This is incredibly tasteless and forgettable wankery in and out.