Beneath the Massacre - _Dystopia_
(Prosthetic Records, 2008)
by: Aly Hassab El Naby (4 out of 10)
Beneath the Massacre came out of Montreal in 2004 loaded with energy and enthusiasm that was poured all over their debut album _Mechanics of Dysfunction_. After one year of extensive touring with lots of big names, they have unleashed their second beast _Dystopia_, and that energy is still there. The sheer brutality of a band that's so ferocious in its expression has remained with _Dystopia_, but they didn't seem to put their touring experience into guiding this energy properly.

Musically speaking, the record is blast-laden and guitar swept all over, which indicates their persistence and improvement as players, but there's still much work to be done in the songwriting area. The band gets caught switching abruptly to oddly placed breakdowns more than once, on "Condemned" and "Never More". At some points it felt like some sort of a super speed death metal race, like the mid-section of "Our Common Grave". As the mid-point is approached, the extent of the brutality can get on the untrained nerve, for this is not death metal for the faint of heart. "The Wasteland" includes an intelligent drum fill which contrasts the breakneck speed at which the rest of the song flows. Sensible melody makes a humble appearance in the form of a melodic chorus riff in "Bitter", but the drumming does not offer much to distinguish between the different riffs being played.

Probably the best stop on this relentless ride is "Lithium Overdose". Both guitars provide a thick sound and the intricate soloing is upset only by its awkward end. The best drumming on this offering is on the aforementioned "Never More" and the final whistle is blown at "Procreating the Infection", which kicks off with a dizzying guitar sweep but then sponges off the same good idea of a tremolo picked melody.

_Dystopia_ is an overtly mechanical and soulless album that would definitely stir up a few mosh-pits at any concert, but it's not much of a greasy death metal album that one would marvel upon. It sure is heavy, brutal, ferocious, relentless or whatever you'd like to call it, but it's just more of the same.

Contact: http://www.beneaththemassacre.com/

(article published 8/10/2009)


ALBUMS
4/2/2012 A El Naby 2 Beneath the Massacre - Incongruous
GIGS
2/25/2008 J Smit Despised Icon / Misery Index / Beneath the Massacre / Annotations of an Autopsy Bent Backwards and Broken
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