The foul German act named Beyond Helvete is back with a new full-length curse after an eight-year wait and offers aggressive, hate-filled black metal with a wicked groove to it. Sharp and intense but sufficiently melodic too, ”MMXX” is quite varied and the vocal work is strong and inspired. A prominent aura of misanthropy courses through this half-hour musical journey into despair and there are some truly interesting layers and cool nuances to these compositions, which is perfectly exemplified by the piece entitled ”The Way to Entelechy”.

 

The sound is raw but lacks neither depth nor punch and in many ways it complements and enhances the vile mood of this ugly black ‘n’ roll record. On top of that, Beyond Helvete’s 2020 opus is musically cohesive and utterly solid in terms of quality. At first it may strike you as a rather direct and straightforward album, but closer inspection and repeated listens will inevitably reveal that there are many shades to the whole affair and that it is anything but one-dimensional. The hauntingly morose ”Crowd of Faceless” is the standout track and a hugely diverse one at that, but the brooding and unsettling title song rules too, so make a note of those two tunes.

This might not be groundbreaking or bone-chillingly brilliant as such but it is nevertheless pretty fucking effective stuff when one is in the right frame of mind to listen to Beyond Helvete’s brand of depressive black metal from the underground pit. In short, this is a most potent slab of disgust where the music and lyrics go hand in hand rather beautifully, and the entire thing is totally worth your time.

https://smarturl.it/BH-MMXX