When listening to the debut album of Beyond Surface, I cannot help but give a credit to the 6 members of this German band for their songwriting skills. Gerrit (vocals), Thorsten (guitars, backing vocals), Marten (guitars, backing vocals), Max (bass) Sascha (keyboards) and Löffel (drums) in their short career have already shown that they are able to play in Gothic Rock’s Premier League. And even if they are not very known yet, I’m sure that they will be in the next few years. The line up of the band changed in the summer of 2001, as the original bass player had to be replaced. To get to the point, (and the point is this amazing album) I was more than impressed with the maturity and the goth sound of the album something that it’s more than astonishing for a newcomer band. All the 12 songs of the album prove a great stylistic versatility, which is really astonishing for a newcomer band. The opener “From The Mountain” which is a song with forceful piano melodies and heavy guitars couldn’t be a better intro to this. Beyond Surface in some of their songs had a hue of Paradise Lost (for example in “The Dreaming Beauty” a song that is surrounded of a melancholic atmosphere,). Another influence of the band is surely the well known HIM like in the song “The Cure” or in “Words Burn Down Like Fire”. Another highlight of the album is definitely “Funeral For Sarah” which has a driving rhythm and catchy hookline and I’m sure that this will be one of their greatest hits. The last song of the album is “Come Back And Stay”, which is a groovy cover version of Paul Young’s 80’s hit and Beyond Surface managed to gave the song a real rock treatment while maintaining the essential authenticity. Gerrit has a really worthy vocalist presentation so the rest members has each in his section. The production is fine, but I think that it could be better and that is my only objection to the whole result, which is beautiful anyway. To cut it short all the songs of the album deal with different phases and kinds of love as Marten said. Those are maybe the keywords to the question “how did they manage to release such a dynamic and at the same time atmospheric and romantic album! Keep on the good work guys!
When listening to the debut album of Beyond Surface, I cannot help but give a credit to the 6 members of this German band for their songwriting skills. Gerrit (vocals), Thorsten (guitars, backing vocals), Marten (guitars, backing vocals), Max (bass) Sascha (keyboards) and Löffel (drums) in their short career have already shown that they are able to play in Gothic Rock’s Premier League. And even if they are not very known yet, I’m sure that they will be in the next few years. The line up of the band changed in the summer of 2001, as the original bass player had to be replaced. To get to the point, (and the point is this amazing album) I was more than impressed with the maturity and the goth sound of the album something that it’s more than astonishing for a newcomer band. All the 12 songs of the album prove a great stylistic versatility, which is really astonishing for a newcomer band. The opener “From The Mountain” which is a song with forceful piano melodies and heavy guitars couldn’t be a better intro to this. Beyond Surface in some of their songs had a hue of Paradise Lost (for example in “The Dreaming Beauty” a song that is surrounded of a melancholic atmosphere,). Another influence of the band is surely the well known HIM like in the song “The Cure” or in “Words Burn Down Like Fire”. Another highlight of the album is definitely “Funeral For Sarah” which has a driving rhythm and catchy hookline and I’m sure that this will be one of their greatest hits. The last song of the album is “Come Back And Stay”, which is a groovy cover version of Paul Young’s 80’s hit and Beyond Surface managed to gave the song a real rock treatment while maintaining the essential authenticity. Gerrit has a really worthy vocalist presentation so the rest members has each in his section. The production is fine, but I think that it could be better and that is my only objection to the whole result, which is beautiful anyway. To cut it short all the songs of the album deal with different phases and kinds of love as Marten said. Those are maybe the keywords to the question “how did they manage to release such a dynamic and at the same time atmospheric and romantic album! Keep on the good work guys!