Norway and Black Metal, something that just goes hand in hand. Like Cheese and Pickle and Pineapple on Pizza, it's just the natural order. But when the Scandinavian Black Metal washing machine churns out yet another offering to the world of Heavy Metal you can't help but think, what's new?'. So, without further ado, allow me to introduce BEYOND MAN bringing forth their debut release "Beyond Man". The artwork for which is just simple, yet elegant in its simplicity.

Opening the album is the aptly named "Intro"; ominous undertones that make my minds eye begin to imagine the vast dunes of the desert during a sandstorm. The track may not be a full bodied, blood and thunder track but by god does it set the scene, I cannot wait for what is to come. The flurry of intense and desperate instrumentals, when coupled with the pained and anguishing screams really takes the album on it's natural course. That sandstorm is still raging uncontrollably but it's building, and what a perfect way to capture this than with the development of the vocals. From distant shouts, to aggressive guttural growls it hammers the track home.

"Art Beyond Man" begins with a much more silky Doomy feel, those heavy and drawn out notes just trudging the track along before coming to a juddering halt. But this is short lived, before vocalist W calls to the listener and the instrumentals burst into life with a flurry of activity. But that Doomy styling comes back to the fore toward the latter end of the track, and to me, these seamless transitions of styles really made this particular track stand out to me as something really fantastic. If you want to see more melding styles and blurred Genre lines then look no further than "World Without End", the music is just evolving before your eyes. It is not Black Metal, but it is and I am struggling to define it. It is it's own beast, it is intense, aggressive and most of all utterly fantastic. I love it.

 If you were to take the parts of these first four tracks that made them perfect, blended them together and poured the results into a speaker, then I think you would get "Ave Usera" and "The World Encircler". The musicianship is simply astounding, the intricacies in behind the main wall of music is so deftly delivered that you might not notice it, but you certainly would had it not been present. And then there is just that final musical section of "The World Encircler", the sandstorm has built to it's apocalyptic proportions and is engulfing everything and everyone before ending with the world in chaos.

Overall, I fucking adored this album. BEYOND MAN have delivered such a fantastically complete performance that I am struggling to fault it. Ok if I was trying to pick fault (which I kind of guess is my remit with this? I don't know I don't like to be an arsehole), the production may not have been perfect, but I question whether that was to aid in the effective delivery and the styles that they opted to go with. Fans of good music, get out there and get this album into your library TODAY!