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Beyond the Threshold of Death is the debut full-length album by the German Death Metal act Lifeless. While the album is a little bland, lacking a bit of a bite, there's no denying that this effort is still a solid romp through the world of old-school Death Metal with great compositions that showcase the talent that the band members have. However, the production quality winds up leaving a little more to be desired from with this release. Beyond the Threshold of Death starts off with a well suiting introduction of two individuals digging graves, a simple introductory audio sample given the simple name of "Intro" and does it's job well to sum up the overall lyrical concepts and general vibe of the rest of the album. This audio clip winds up bleeding into the next track, "Entombment in Unknown Graves", just by a few seconds, which actually works out in a sense because it's the section of the clip that states the song title, and you hear a shovel scraping across the ground. The music kicks right in after that, and immediately you will be reminded of many earlier Swedish Metal acts such as Dismember, which has a cover song on this reissue later on. From this track and on, you are greeted with nothing but spot on Death Metal music that is highly enjoyable and in many senses could be considered flawless as far as the composition goes. While there's a good amount of tracks on here that are highly enjoyable, the only two that really stand out on this release are "Beyond the Threshold of Death" thanks to it's speed and intensity, and then there's the closing track "In the End...(Of Life)", there's a unique drumming pattern that finds itself a bit of a departure from what is on this release from "Entombment in Unknown Graves" and on. However, the production and the performance of the material winds up causing some issues with the final product. The performance on this release itself is not bad, however, there are times where you will wish the band would have a little more energy in their songs. There's plenty of songs on here that have the same hard hitting energy behind them, but there are just times where you'll hear things the make you wonder if the band just went ahead with it whether they knew it was going to sound odd or not, such as nearing the end of the song "Entomed in Unknown Graves" where it seems like there is a complex guitar riff and drum bridge that plays, and it just doesn't quite fit in, as well as a little forced into the mix. Another instance would be towards the very end of "The Final Sacrifice", where you can hear cymbol crashes that sound as if the drummer screwed up momentarily, and no one caught on. Luckily these kinds of elements are very few through the album, and the final performance product sounds very professional overall. The only real drawback to the album is the production quality. Sometimes it causes songs on here to just not have a good bite to them, and they wind up sounding a little bland. Luckily this isn't on all the tracks, as there are still plenty of tracks here, such as the title track "Beyond the Threshold of Death", that sound phenomenal, such as through the drumming or a littlle more speed or intricacy with the guitar and bass chords. However, you can still hear it in the final product as there is a slight hum to the songs, and sometimes the vocals just don't sound like they should within the mix. The guitars also just wind up sounding muffled instead of distorted, and that's an aspect you more then likely won't notice at first, but will pick up more during the moments during or after a guitar solo, such as right after the solo in "Beyond the Threshold of Death". 2010 Reissue The 2010 reissue of Beyond the Threshold of Death comes with new cover artwork, as well as a cover of the song "Casket Garden", originally performed by Dismember. The cover track is very close to the original and, of course, has a slightly different production quality that sounds close to the original quality of Beyond the Threshold of Death, but corrects some of the problems that held it back. First of all the guitars sound less muffled, and the vocal performance sounds a lot better thanks to a more gutteral approach with background supporting back of the throat-like vocals that the original release had. Hopefully, this is the sound that we can expect on future Lifeless releases. While the album does have some fantastic music to it, there is often a lack of variety within the music itself with a few tracks here and there sounding like one another. Tack on the production issue and the minor performance problems outlined above, and you've got a rather good self financed debut album. If you didn't get to pick up one of the very limited five hundred copies of this release, or if you just want the Dismember cover song, then be sure to check out Beyond the Threshold of Death when given the chance. |
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