Beyond Dawn
Revelry

If any of you Ladies and Gentlemen, who undertake the adventurous business of reading the reviews of your "semper fidelis" beloved ElectricOne, we were saying, if one day you decide to listen to something more bizarre than usual, something so original as to leave you stunned, but also intoxicated and unusually disturbed, my advice for you could be this "Revelry" by the Norwegian Beyond Dawn.

I would say let's start with some biographical notes before trying to explain what kind of anomaly our band is: active since the first half of the '90s, their first 7" vinyl single (back then, it was quite common to release a launch single for bands that couldn't afford overly expensive productions and also to test the underground market, which was quite receptive to this kind of minor releases at the time) entitled "Up through the linear shades" is from 1993. However, they made the big leap by releasing the EP "Longing for scarlet days" the following year and then, signing a nice little contract with Candlelight Rec. (a very refined label with an excellent eye for talent), creating what the metal press has defined as their compositional peak, the acclaimed "Pity Love". The musical drift of our band would certainly not stop, so much so that after the excellent "Revelry," which we'll deal with shortly, as if trapped in a vortex that would completely overturn their musical identity, starting from "Electric sulking machine," the Norwegians would release albums with an overly electropop flavor, completely abandoning the distinctive features that characterized their unique and sick sound.

Among these, besides a certain love for psychotic atmospheres in the style of Virgin Prunes during the "Heresy" period, there's the notable use of wind instruments, brass, and particularly the trombone, which, coincidentally, makes its entrance right from the first track of "Revelry."

Now, the album under review is a bizarre and lascivious chameleon, perverse in its change and also quite complicated to explain: as already mentioned, take the "natural" madness of Virgin Prunes, the deviant and domineering atmospheres also expressed by contemporaries 3rd and the Mortal, a handful of abrasive alternative rock in the style of My Bloody Valentine, and add the imponderable intrinsic originality that Beyond Dawn has always demonstrated. That's how you get this second full-length by our band, the last one that still possesses metal roots, even if extremely sweetened, but not suffocated, simply and delicately put at the service of a decadent and romantic atmosphere. The vocals, unlike the previous album, are absolutely devoid of screams or growls, presenting as a middle ground between the dark emotionality of '80s goth/dark singers (his dragging reminds me a bit of the late Rozz Williams from the early Christian Death) and a drunk and disappointed '50s crooner.

The album in its entirety is very enjoyable, for its ability to drastically change scenarios from song to song, and within the songs themselves, which can be very doom (always in an extremely personal way, it should be noted), as for example in the long "Stuck" or the concluding and spatial "Phase to phase", but also extremely bizarre and seductive as in "Three steps for the chameleon" or the more acidic (which would seem a contradiction given the title) "Tender". Also noteworthy is the intimate emotionality of a beautiful "Breathe the jackal" and the absolute madness of "Life's sweetest reward" (a very delicate track plagued by death metal-style drums, resulting in something fantastic).

All packaged with great grace and elegance, all this originality seems to come together magically, never pouring into solutions that are ends unto themselves, or even worse, inconclusive, "Revelry" perfectly hits the target of maintaining a high level of listener attention, despite the complexities of the work.

In short, you need to have a very open mind and a desire for novelty to fully appreciate the sound of our band and especially a certain patience to re-listen to it, to savor every single nuance and appreciate their being intimate and modest.