CoC : Beyond Dawn - Electric Sulking Machine : Review

Beyond Dawn - _Electric Sulking Machine_
(Peaceville, 1999)
by: Pedro Azevedo (5 out of 10)

Though Beyond Dawn have released some more material since then, I hadn't heard anything from them since their 1995 release _Pity Love_, an album which contained some material I found quite interesting, mainly for its atmosphere. Sometimes during _Electric Sulking Machine_, in tracks such as "Violence Heals" and "On the Subject of Turning Insane", I can still find some of that atmosphere which I liked in _Pity Love_, and I can still enjoy what Beyond Dawn are doing these days in this Peaceville debut of theirs. However, though sometimes capable of creating a relatively sombre and melancholic atmosphere like they did before (which is occasionally vaguely similar to what In the Woods... have done with some of their _Strange in Stereo_), Beyond Dawn are also capable of excessively repeating themselves and of inserting too much material which is neither musically remarkable nor suitable to what the overall album atmosphere could have been -- this concerns the happy-ish beats, sounds or choruses of "Addictions Are Private", "Fairly Liquid" and "Aage", for example. Overall, an album with some good moments but a major lack of consistency and direction, which Beyond Dawn really need to find one of these days if they are ever to be remembered for more than some interesting passages.

(article published 12/10/1999)

ALBUMS
8/12/2009	Q Kalis	9	Beyond Dawn - Bygones
13/4/1998	A Lewandowski	3	Beyond Dawn - Revelry

GIGS
13/3/2001	V Anderson	My Dying Bride / Katatonia / Soundisciples / Beyond Dawn / Thine	The Snow in Their Hearts