Beyond The Red Horizon – Into The Cosmic Realm

Posted in Reviews on April 29th, 2011 by Typhon


Genre: Melodic Death Metal

Label: Independent
If At The Gates had Phil Bozeman on vocals, a more free wheelin’ lead guitarist and (believe it or not) better lyrics, then they’d be Beyond The Red Horizon. If that didn’t snag your attention and set your imagination lose in a metal-candy store, then stop reading at the end of this sentence, since the rest of this review is going to be me gushing all over Into The Cosmic Realm.

This five track EP weighs a ton! Twenty minutes and forty-five seconds? No way. As many times as you’ll be starting it over and over again, it’s easily break the hour mark! I honestly couldn’t get enough of the ethereal imagery and pan-dimensional soundscapes that these four young lads conjured up!

Vocalist Nathan Mote has some of the most balanced vocals I’ve heard in a while. His barbaric growls (which sound JUST like the aforementioned Whitechapel vocalist‘s without any of the post-production tampering) are on par with his shrieking and each seem to compliment each other without either one overpowering the other. Which seems to be quite the pitfall nowadays in this genre. But let’s not forget about Jason Borton, bringing up the rhythm section. I swear on a stack of pancakes that this guy was born doing blast beats and probably even had his first snare as a zygote! Borton is a machine! It’s not very often that you can isolate a drum track and still hear a great melody! Color me beyond impressed…

Vlad’s guitar work is, once again, in tip-top from. His leads sound terrific. Organically growing and receding with the natural ebb and flow of the melody, when suddenly; SOLO AHOY!!! An acid rock inspired wah-wah fest springs up and Vlad’s fingers go into overdrive, shredding up and dishing out lightning fast riffs that lay waste to the listener! But backing him up, we’ve got Colin St.Claire on bass. Laying down thick yet speedy lines that boom, bounce and bludgeon your ear drums. The occasional solo is thrown in too (my favorite is towards the beginning of Storms Within), just to let you know that the talent is band wide.

Overall: Beyond The Red Horizon is the premier melodic death metal entity in Pacific Northwest! There. I said it. It can’t be unsaid. That’s it and that’s all.

10/10

Beyond The Red Horizon On Facebook

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Von Doom CD Release Party

Posted in Live Reviews on March 20th, 2011 by Typhon

The Hawthrone Theater – Portland, Oregon – 3/19/2011

Ok, it’s late so I’ll make the introduction quick: Tonight was the CD release party for local act Von Doom and their EP Under The Ashen Empire. But that’s not all. It was a gathering of some of the most talented and fun loving group of musicians that Portland has to offer.

Quick enough for you?

Beyond The Red Horizon - I was surprised to see these guys in the opener slot. I really was. I figured they’re be second to last seeing as to how fucking popular/hard working they are. Now, I haven’t seen or heard anything from BTRH in over a year or so and I assumed that they’d have some new material.

They did.

And I’m enthused to tell you that their new material is TITS! Big, huge, bouncy, ready for motorboatin’ tits! The lads from Beyond The Red Horizon were as always, full of contagious energy and pros through and through. Their mixture of full on aggression and melodic musicianship is a sight to behold and to be heard.
I was sure to pick up their new EP, Into The Cosmic Realm. (Review to come shortly!)

Intermission - Between sets, the house played music to pass the time. Sounds pretty standard, right? And since this is a crowd of teenage metalheads (no offense) I was astounded to see how many of them actually knew the lyrics to Holy Diver and Rainbow In The Dark! Granted those are two of Dio’s mainstream hits, it was still refreshing to see none the less.

Dusk’s Embrace - I was particularly excited to see Dusk’s Embrace since I was supposed to see them twice before but they bowed out both times. And with no offense to Dusk’s Embrace, I was a little under whelmed. Maybe it was because the stage was a little big for only three guys to be on it. Maybe it was because none of members were moving around at all. Or maybe it was because Dusk’s Embrace seems like more of an “album band”, where their music is more enjoyable when you’re kicking back in your Lay-Z-Boy, joint hanging out of the corner of your mouth and lights dimmed.

But that’s just my opinion. And to be fair, they performed well enough. Maybe my expectations were too high for a band that I hold in such high regard. Sorry guys. But on the plus side, I picked up their new album, The Twilight Enigma. (Review to come shortly!)

Othrys (formally Our Own Blood) - Since their vocalist was out with a 102 degree fever, Othrys played as an instrumental three piece. Now, I’ve never actually heard these guys play before, but I’m practically foaming at the mouth to hear them as a full band! The three dudes on stage KILLED! Tons of energy, mountainous riffs with mosh pit pleasing breakdowns and machine gun drumming poured out of this temporary trio of titanic thrashers!

Unfortunately, they don’t have any recorded material out at the moment, so we’ll have to wait this one out… damn it!

Titarius - At the risk of sounding biased, Titarius fucking owns! Hearing that many people shout “D..O..A!!!” at once was almost surreal since I’m used to just hearing myself trying to layer my voice in an attempt to make it sound like there are three other people shouting it with me in my car… ::is ashamed::

Titarius makes a habbit of blowing the crowd away with awesome metal covers… and this one was a doozy! I have to admit, seeing five guys that aren’t Iron Maiden play Powerslave was almost unsettling… ALMOST unsettling. In actuality, Titarius fucking nailed this cover! I’m positive that the crowd shared my beliefs since the applause was deafening.

Intermission - Hey! Remember earlier when I said that they played house music between sets? Well, this time they tranced it up a bit… yeah. Eighty pound teenage girls trying to bump and grind on guys wearing Death and Iron Maiden t-shirts. It was kind of creepy to say the least.

Von Doom - While I was a moderate fan of Von Doom’s Second Sight, (barring the vocals, of course. Yech!) I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect. Was the vocalist going to make me cringe? Were these guys going to be able to perform up to the task of being in the headline slot? Did anybody hear me when I shouted “Reed Richards is a pussy?”

1) The vocalist actually sounded great. 2) Yes and no. 3) Probably not since I didn’t get punched.

Von Doom had their fans in a frenzy before they even finished setting up their equipment. A most impressive feat for a local band, no question.

But I gotta be honest, they lost me around their cover (that was for the ladies) of Rod Stewart’s If You Want My Body… yeah. I was officially pooped so I bowed out for the night. But not before picking up their free demo… (Review to come shortly)

Beyond The Red Horizon On Facebook

Dusk’s Embrace On Facebook

Othrys On MySpace

Titarius On Facebook

Von Doom On Facebook

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Interview With Beyond The Red Horizon

Posted in Interviews on August 17th, 2010 by Typhon

First off, what’s with the name? Why are you all charging past the horizon? Or are we, the audience, supposed to be peering past that wild red something?

The name has different connotations to each member of the band, and I also think it’s hard for our audience to pinpoint us for several reasons that have to do with that idea. We’re not a band that all stand for the same things. Our lyrics, name, influences and music are all a conglomerate of the individual thoughts and beliefs of each member, so when someone reads our lyrics and hears our music, well, sometimes they just come away confused, like “What are these guys about?” If someone asked me personally what came to mind when I heard the name “ Beyond The Red Horizon,” I would think of the physical limitations of the world we live in. What’s beyond the red horizon? Something greater than ourselves, something unexplainable, something vast; something that can’t be spelled out in human terms.

What are Beyond The Red Horizon’s goals? What are you guys all about?

Our goals are to keep on creating proggy catchy tunes that try to push our musical abilities and expands people’s preconceived expectations and stereotypes. As long as we can keep doing this, pushing ourselves to become better musicians with each composition/release we create, we will continue Beyond The Red Horizon. And Perhaps one day it will pay off and pull in some serious label interest.

Who would you say your biggest influences are?

We hate naming influences because it really can pigeonhole you as an artist, and we don’t want to be in the shadow of our idols forever. Suffice it to say that anyone pushing the envelope in terms of speed, time/tempo changes, introspective, ideas, and a knack for at least attempting an original sound and progression over various releases is what we’re into. I would say listen to our songs and draw your own conclusions…if you can, haha!

It’s just a huge amount of artists from nearly every genre imaginable; however, our music is influenced as much or more by sources other than bands. If you read a lot of our lyrics, we’re a band that asks big questions about life, death, energy, good and evil, etc.
Space, Philosophy,Thoughts,Inner Struggles,Cryonics,Alienation,Religion, …once again I am delving into our lyrical topics, so I digress, but you get the picture. Personally, along with the aforementioned topics,

Where was that picture on your Metal Archives profile taken? It’s driving me nuts since it looks so familiar…

I actually don’t know haha! I wasn’t in the band at that time. That was the original lineup of Sky (Guitar & Vocals), Vlad (Guitar), Peter (Bass) and John (Drums) that lasted from 2006 to 2008. I think it might be under the St. Johns Bridge, but I could be wrong about that. I think the band has a knack for bridges though, our new promo pics were taken under the Fremont Bridge, but it’s Portland, the bridges are hard to avoid!

With the constant line-up changes, was it hard to discover your core sound? Or was it easier with fresh perspectives? Did it evolve over time or was it set from the get-go?

Our core sound has definitely evolved, Listening back to the 2008 self titled- Demo and the stuff we’re diving into now is like night and day…. and we are all about that lol, but some of it was purely by accident BECAUSE of the lineup changes. Personel changes was the band’s biggest set back from the get go due to the lack of dedication and creative differences. However, every single musician brought something of their own to the mix, which obviously complemented the sound at that particular time  Like for every other artist, change is a very natural and sometimes an unavoidable part of their journey so it is true for us.

After the the departure of Corey(Vocals) and Marco(Bass) after the Observance E.P It was very hard to find replacements who are capable of playing this music around Portland, and we were fortunate enought to have good friends fill in for a number of occasions, so before Nathan and Matt entered the picture, Vlad and I felt optimistic enought and kept it going and wrote and arranged the better part of our new material. Between July of 09′ and January of this year we had a lot of time for experimentation with various themes/ideas and we promise it will show!!!!!!!

Where was your 2009 EP, “Observance” recorded?

We recorded that at Robotsatemystudio May-June of last year, with Dan McCall, he is the bassist in a Portland band called A Hope For Home. I think they’re on Facedown records.

You guys seem to be getting around Portland pretty well. Where would you say your favorite place to perform is at?


Yeah, we really have been playing out a lot. Portland has been good to us really… I would say as a whole it’s probably the Hawthorne, the sound on stage there is just phenomenal and the crowd is always receptive. We have played quite a few exceptional gigs in ’09 with Psyopus and later Moonspell Devine Heresy which helped us greatlly with exposure.
One which sticks the most is Playing out with Dark Tranquillity in May, and scoring a KUFO interview and a great response.
Do you guys plan on releasing a full length album any time soon?

We are holding off on a full lenght due to time/budget constrains. However we have a five track  independent release in the works in a pre-production stage with some of our strongest material yet.

In speaking of…we are very proud of the new material and the guys with whom we are working  right now. It will definitely be a huge leap for us musically, we hope  it will speak to a lot of people and raise a few eyebrows.

Tracking Listing For the TBA E.P

The Mythic Image
Walking In The Starlight
Infinity At Our Hands

Storms Within
Into The Cosmic Realms

Is there anything you would like to add for the E-MetalSpace & Funeral Rain audiences?


Thanks for the interview, and thanks to anyone who reads this and comes out to a show or checks out our music.

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