Swedish die-hard heavy metallers Enforcer came into being, back in 2004 and released their first full length album, Into The Night, in 2008. Since then their sound has matured but never strayed from their core style. From Beyond is the band’s fourth full length album and the material is well polished and certainly holds its own against the classics.
I thank the Gods that there are guys like this here to keep heavy metal going in its original form; too often a genre will die down or evolve beyond popularity; there are those that would say this belongs back in the 80’s – to them I would ask, do you still have albums by Iron Maiden and, if so, do you still listen to them? Just as I thought…
The opening track, ‘Destroyer’, sets the tone of the album with energetic and crunchy guitars, a thumping drum beat, relentlessly driving bass-lines and a rip-roaring, vocal opener that would make Mustaine proud (see Killing is my Business – ‘Last Rites/Loved to Death’).
The Maiden-esque title track ‘From Beyond’ really stands to show what these guys are about; that is, keeping the more traditional incarnation of heavy metal alive and kicking. ‘Below The Slumber’ takes the pace down in the verses, bringing a melodic Bon Jovi flavour before slapping you in the face and reminding you why they are here, while ‘The Banshee’s mighty chorus reminds us of everything we love about classic power metal.
For some reason the album finishes up with ‘Mask of Red Death’, which seems to be slightly unsure of what it is trying to achieve; there are a number of different elements but it doesn’t have the same continuity that the other tracks do and, for me, it results in a slightly weak finish to the album despite the lovely hook that has notes of Metallica’s Orion. This leaves me with the question, why, oh why, did they not end on ‘Farewell’? Too obvious? Perhaps.
From Beyond, simply put, is raw and unadulterated metal. This is a rip roaring old skool metal-fest that will grab you by the balls, call you ‘bitch’, slap you to the floor and teabag you from an almighty classic power stance. And you will thank them; there is no disputing that what these guys do, they do very, very well.
Out Now via Nuclear Blast!
