In our ongoing investigation of deceptive and outright fraudulent extreme metal acts, we pull the rug under a handful of established outfits that don’t even seem to bother hiding that they are after your money first, artistic integrity a distant second - an audience satisfaction not even registering. The more we pull away the blinds the more obvious these practices become. Maybe your favorite band is in here, maybe your life-long inspiration only cares about the dollars/euros you’re giving him/her? Don’t be fooled, there are plenty of honest, hard-working metal bands everywhere in the scene. It’s just that these money-hungry, artistically vacuum units make it difficult for everybody involved. These bands stopped caring, they lost the passion and fire. In short: they Sold Their Souls...
I had some material done already before the demise of Lord Belial. Some of the material was actually intended for the next Lord Belial album, but since we disbanded I changed around all of the ideas into new songs.
I don’t really consider it that much superior. But we KEPT the quality from 1st to 4th album, and that is something that is not easy to do! And I think there will come a 5th album that will kick just as much ass.
Denial Of God was one of the early Danish traditional black metal acts, but never went anywhere of note. Of it current incarnation only drummer Michael Pedersen (Exmortem, Panzerchrist) is somewhat known. Compared to past efforts this record is clearly more diverse, incorporating elements from black, thrash, death, doom and pure heavy metal. But just because a band can mix a lot of different styles doesn’t mean that the result of worthy of praise. Going from what this album offers it’s not surprising that Denial Of God didn’t go to greener pastures like some of their contemporaries. Much of the material simply isn’t gripping enough, nor does it possess that spark and compositional greatness that seperates the wheat from the chaff. “Death and the Beyond” sounds like just another underground black metal act doing what they do. For death metal standards, this is way too tame, as a black metal record it’s too gothic in general atmosphere, it’s not nearly funereal enough for doom metal terms and despite some neat riffing a new heavy metal icon isn’t found here. There are too many followers and despite statements to the contrary, Denial Of God never was a leader in any genre. Generally speaking the cuts plod onwards without any real payoff or climax. The songs go through many twists and turns and there’s a host of different atmospheres – yet with no significant objective or goal in mind these tracks are nothing but a collection of riffs. The only thing black metal about Denial Of God is their lyrical content and vocal stylings, otherwise this is fairly restraint sounding heavy death metal with elements of classic doom (think Solitude Aeturnus) sprinkled in. Denial Of God is able to create an appropriate spooky atmosphere with relative little means, but Mortiis already perfected this shtick in the early 1990s.http://www.hellsheadbangers.comcomment itWouter 5
