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Göden - Beyond Darkness review




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Reviewer:
7.5

24 users:
7
Band: Göden
Album: Beyond Darkness
Release date: May 2020


01. Glowing Red Sun
02. Manifestation I - Tolling Death Bells
03. Twilight
04. Manifestation II - A New Order
05. Cosmic Blood
06. Manifestation II - The Spawn Of Malevolence
07. Komm Susser Tod
08. Genesis Rise
09. Manifestation IV - The Progeny Of Goden
10. Dark Nebula
11. Manifestation V - The Epoch Of Goden
12. I Am Immortal
13. Manifestation VI - The Beginning And The End
14. Ego Eimie Gy
15. Manifestation VII - Gaia Rejuvenated
16. Night
17. Manifestation VIII - A New Age
18. Thundering Silence
19. Winter

Remember Winter?

Considering how overlooked this album was, I can't say I really blame bands for keeping the old recognizable band name when reuniting after decades even if only a handful if any of the original members are involved. Winter did briefly reunite last decade, but only for some live shows, but at least that reunion had all original members. I would've loved a new Winter album, but whatever happened happened. At least Göden had the decency to get a new band name, taking their name from a Winter song, though two of the four people who performed on Into Darkness being here is a pretty good track record. A whole lot of reunions don't even get THAT. And you know what, 30 years after it, Beyond Darkness is a pretty good spiritual successor to Into Darkness. Though now I can't really think of a new wordplay for "Darkness" that would fit any follow-up.

Göden takes original guitarist Stephen Flam and original keyboardist Tony Pinnisi, and teams them up with Hanzel Und Gretyl's Vas Kallas handling the vocals (giving each of the three some wacky nicknames), as well as a bunch of session musicians doing drums, guitars and violins for that extra doom atmosphere. Due to the drumming not necessarily being such a huge part of Göden's sound, the fact that not every track has the same drummer doesn't really affect the album's consistency. And even though I can't say I was too familiar with Hanzel Und Gretyl, I can say that Vas Kallas' vocals fit like a glove over the sinister dark doom. The sound is obviously pretty similar to Winter in that it is a very atmospheric and riffy take on death and doom metal, but one clearly more matured from its predecessor, and with more emphasis on doom rather than death. Lacking a bit of that frost, but making up from it in massive soundscapes, a narrative feel from those "Manifestation" tracks, and riffs for days.

The thing is that while Beyond Darkness has a great sound, the thing is 70 damn minutes long, and I can't really say that it has enough ideas for that whole runtime. They do make up for the length by having a pretty immersive atmosphere, but it well overstays its welcome. It takes its sweet time, everything feels overstretched, not always to its benefit. But sometimes it also has its own appeal, like some unending cruel darkness. And this albums reeks of sinister darkness. It's even in the damn name. And if anyone has the right to do some sinister dark death doom, it's the people who were there thirty years ago when it was created. So, even if I would've liked at least 20 minutes cut off from this, maybe I should be grateful that we get our money's worth of death doom from that three decade absence, during which I think many people eagerly awaited anything from the Winter camp.

Also do yourself a favor and listen to Into Darkness if you haven't already. It's a classic. And now they are somehow back, and we also have both a Winter track called "Goden" and a Göden track called "Winter".






Written on 06.07.2020 by Doesn't matter that much to me if you agree with me, as long as you checked the album out.


Comments

Comments: 8   Visited by: 56 users
06.07.2020 - 16:24
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
Old farts as I and few new puppies in a metal flock what survives starvation never forgets bands such as winter. It was great band, sad new album never came, but this well its good, but I dont like band secrecy, no good information about them to fit and make active in MS. Good intro, good outro.
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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06.07.2020 - 22:02
The Witchfinder
Account deleted
I've never seen a review work so hard to recommend an album that wasn't the actual album the review is based on.
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06.07.2020 - 22:08
Rating: 8
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by Guest on 06.07.2020 at 22:02

I've never seen a review work so hard to recommend an album that wasn't the actual album the review is based on.

There's gotta be a premiere for everything
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Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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01.01.2021 - 07:16
Starvynth
i c deaf people
Finally listened to this in full and I'm torn between praise and blame.

Praise, because this could easily have been one of the top doom albums of 2020.
Blame, because these totally pointless narrative parts ruined it for me. In my opinion these eight "Manifestations" fail to add any value, all they do is disrupt the album's flow and then 76 minutes can be too much of a challenge to retain the average listener's undivided attention.

Anyway, I truly enjoyed the review's subliminal references. It took me quite a while because you really have to read between the lines to find the hidden clues in order to understand what is really going on here, but I'm pretty sure now that you are talking about the band Winter, am I right?
I still have the original cassette tape of Into Darkness somewhere, but it's just the 1992 Nuclear Blast version - unfortunately neither rare nor kvlt.
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signatures = SPAM
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15.02.2021 - 15:45
Rating: 8
tintinb

Extremely monotonic yet extremely engaging. Sinister is a good way to describe this sound. The word that came to me was ominous.
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Leeches everywhere.
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18.02.2021 - 13:40
Desha
delicious dish
Written by Starvynth on 01.01.2021 at 07:16

Finally listened to this in full and I'm torn between praise and blame.

Praise, because this could easily have been one of the top doom albums of 2020.
Blame, because these totally pointless narrative parts ruined it for me. In my opinion these eight "Manifestations" fail to add any value, all they do is disrupt the album's flow and then 76 minutes can be too much of a challenge to retain the average listener's undivided attention.

Anyway, I truly enjoyed the review's subliminal references. It took me quite a while because you really have to read between the lines to find the hidden clues in order to understand what is really going on here, but I'm pretty sure now that you are talking about the band Winter, am I right?
I still have the original cassette tape of Into Darkness somewhere, but it's just the 1992 Nuclear Blast version - unfortunately neither rare nor kvlt.

Yeah the narrative parts are a bit much, also the wrong German on "Komm Susser Tod" kind of took me out of it hahaha.
I don't remember having listened to Winter yet so I'll cross that off my list later as well.
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You are the hammer, I am the nail
building a house in the fire on the hill
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19.02.2021 - 00:24
Starvynth
i c deaf people
Written by Desha on 18.02.2021 at 13:40

Yeah the narrative parts are a bit much, also the wrong German on "Komm Susser Tod" kind of took me out of it hahaha.

That's pretty darn true.
I intentionally didn't mention this song as I believe that it might be some kind of a late revenge. A revenge for four decades of German power metal and teutonic thrash metal and a retribution for 40 years of violent crimes against the English language, with no end in sight.
But to be fair, US bands should likewise abuse French and Italian in order to keep a reasonable balance.
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signatures = SPAM
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19.02.2021 - 09:40
Rating: 8
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
Written by Starvynth on 19.02.2021 at 00:24

But to be fair, US bands should likewise abuse French and Italian in order to keep a reasonable balance.

Makes me think of those "I can't going on" in that one Altar song.
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Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
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