Review: The Beast of Nod – Multiversal

Style: Intergalactic Death Metal (harsh vocals)
Review by: Dan
Country: USA
Release date: 29 March, 2021

Few bands – if any – have embarked upon the depth of full-catalog, brand-identity worldbuilding that The Beast of Nod has, despite being only two full-lengths into their musical journey. Their 2018 debut full-length Vampira: Disciple of Chaos grabbed my attention when it dropped, touting itself as “intergalactic death metal” with song titles like “PotRoast the Rhinoman” and “T.C.T.W.A.D.M.L.C. (The Cybernetic Tiger with a Dorsal-Mounted Laser Cannon)”. I came for the somewhat silly song titles, but was immediately hooked on the thoughtful, and frankly, excellent music.

In October of that year, I followed the Boston-based band – in a totally non-creepy way – to a small club in Portland, Maine, where I was able to experience the might of their live show first-hand. Screaming “POTROAST IS A RHINOMAN” at the top of my lungs next to vocalist Paul Buckley, amidst a few staggering stragglers who had wandered over from the bar, I realized that this band was criminally underrated, and that I shouldn’t be the only one singing along in the pit. These guys were GOING places. And I didn’t mean moving to the San Francisco bay area, as half the band has now done.

Fast-forward two and a half years, and they’ve released a monster of a followup record with a star-studded guest list that includes guitar legends Joe Satriani and Michael Angelo Batio! Getting Joe Satriani to play on your album and help promote it on social media? Yeah, I’d say that’s ‘going places.’

In a densely packed death metal scene bursting at the seams with up-and-coming acts fighting for the same soundscapes, The Beast of Nod has actually managed to carve an impressively unique niche. Their note-heavy compositions nod strongly towards techdeath, but the dense synth layers, keen ear for melody, and creative arrangements keep the songs firmly on the progressive side of the spectrum. Simply put, this is not your average techdeath, nor is it your average progdeath. The Beast of Nod sounds like no one else, and that’s about the highest compliment I can give.

Before I go too much further into the music though, I want to give you a sense for the backstory that this band has created. Firstly, there’s an encyclopedia of characters from the multiverse. There are over 100 ILLUSTRATED characters, each with an explanation of their origins and characteristics. There are no fewer than seven cosmic squids in this database, mostly engineered from Earthly squids such as Watasenia scintillans or Onykia robusta, designed to be controlled in space battle by either Vampira Infernalis herself (engineer of both the Cosmic Squids and the Star Monkeys) or by the Cosmic Commander Squid. There are seven species of cosmic battle crabs too, though these, considered a failed experiment, were left to their own devices on the planet where they were engineered. This impressively fleshed out universe is referenced by both the band’s albums, and I presume will continue to grow alongside their discography.

Multiversal, specifically, tells the story of how the Land of Nod – the universe containing earth – was destroyed, and subsequently birthed the Multiverse.

Intergalactic war has spread to every corner of the universe. The Super Eon Annihilator, an immensely powerful but laid-back cosmic being, gathers an army (which conveniently includes The Beast of Nod since he enjoys death metal music) in order to fight against Vampira Infernalis, who is attempting to unleash Chaos (a dangerous, powerful being) from where he is imprisoned at the edge of the universe. A battle ensues, and Chaos is released and destroys the universe. A new multiverse is created by the Super Eon Annihilator, who repopulates it with some of his allies from the previous universe. Thankfully for us, he chooses to revive The Beast of Nod, in addition to the Sentient Squirrel Death Machine and Those that Slay, and names all these beings the Guardians of the Multiverse. Oh, and their planets and stuff popped back into existence too. Meanwhile, some humanoid named Ettlediffle starts wandering through the space between spaces (y’know, between the universes in a multiverse) and starts poking holes into various universes. This is bad. The Guardians of the Multiverse are alerted to a threat in another universe and find one of Ettlediffle’s holes, and desperately try to close it. Who knows what kind of damage he caused?

…so yeah. These guys are SERIOIUS. There’s an awful lot to unpack here. While it’s entirely possible that this encyclopedia and the accompanying comic book could stand on their own as the Beast of Nod brand, we’re actually here to discuss some new music.

This is a progressive death metal album filled to the brim with shredtacular fretboard wizardry, intricate synths, gnarly snarls, and a phenomenal session drum performance by Lord Marco Pitruzella of Six Feet Under, Sleep Terror, and Brain Drill. His pedigree of hypertechnical drumming precision serves him well, as this album is incredibly technical, with a huge variety of time signature changes and super tight high-speed musicianship. There are also substantial dynamics within the songs, all of which is played with seeming ease.

My biggest gripe about Vampira was the mixing of the vocals. Thankfully this time around, they sit much better in the mix, and are a lot less grating. They still veer into solid-wall-of-vox territory at times, but are well-written and uniquely distinctive – a massive credit to vocalist Paul Buckley. His higher registers are a bit overly voiced for my liking, but overall his style suits the music well, and he uses a variety of tones to craft a diverse and enjoyable storytelling experience. Unfortunately, it can be a bit tricky to fully understand his lyrical delivery – especially given the effort that went into crafting the story – but such is the world of death metal vocals. Thankfully a few moments do present themselves clearly, like the memorable opening line of “Call of the Squirrel” – as Buckley insightfully points out, you can’t smell death in space.

The bass is adequate, providing a hefty amount of groove, and integrating well with both the drums and the rest of the arrangements, but it doesn’t leave much of an impression after a half-dozen listens. The guitar playing, though, is the absolute highlight here.

The compositions were all written by guitarist Dr. Gore (he’s an MIT alum with a real doctorate in atomic physics, btw) whose custom Equilibrium Guitars axe is one of the nerdiest guitars I’ve ever seen, with a neck-long equation inlaid on the fingerboard. His guitar skills are as mind-boggling as the subject of his studies, and they’re on full display throughout Multiversal. Between highly complex riffs come equally impressive leads, both played by Dr. Gore, and by some high-profile guests including Nick Padovani and Sanjay Kumar of Equipoise (the latter also a part of Wormhole), and Matias Quiroz of Bleak Flesh – in addition to the aforementioned Joe Satriani and Michael Angelo Batio, this record is a treat for guitar fans. Despite the technicality, though, the songs never sacrifice their melodicism or immediacy for meaningless wank. These are well-crafted, thoughtfully honed tracks, with plenty of memorable hooks and grooves to go around.

The production does a more-than-acceptable job presenting this densely-packed chaos in a digestible form. The drums sound crisp and punchy, and the bass is nice and clear, though a bit lower in the mix than I’d prefer. One nitpick on the drums, though, is that I find the sample-replaced snare feels almost programmed, especially during particularly blasty bits or high-speed fills. It just has that constant-velocity and uniform-pitch feel of programmed drums, which is a bit of a shame given how stellar the rest of Lord Marco’s performance is.

The guitars and synths intertwine seamlessly beneath the barrage of vocals, clearly written to inextricably compliment each other. The soundscapes are really commendable – while it’s a bit difficult to discern exactly what’s happening within the synth layers and to differentiate the various guitar parts from the many things occupying a similar sonic space, the overall effect is one of enjoyable and impressive density. This is a RICH mix. There’s a lot happening, and honestly, it’s fucking awesome.

As you can likely guess from everything I’ve said so far, the band doesn’t take their subject matter too seriously. The songs are infectiously fun, full of energy and life and joy, in a way that few albums in recent memory – especially the more challenging or technical ones – have managed to pull off. The 2018 debut EP from Parius comes to mind first, and one can even eke out comparisons to earlier Between the Buried and Me, begrudgingly followed in my mental list by Slugdge‘s masterpiece Esoteric Malacology, but even that pun-filled album about a cult of slugs was still a bit too musically serious for serious comparison. Don’t misinterpret this: the music on Multiversal is outstanding, thoughtfully composed, and the musicianship is absolutely a serious accomplishment, but there’s a distinct playfulness to it. Really, this band doesn’t have too many parallels. Do yourself a favor and give Multiversal a whirl.

Recommended tracks: Flight of the Quetzalcoatlus, Contemporary Calamity, The Plan for Multiversal Creation, The Latent Threat, Shredding of the Cosmos
Recommended for fans of: Between the Buried and Me, Parius, Slugdge, Inferi, Equipoise, Nerdy sci-fi
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: self-released

The Beast of Nod is:
– Paul Buckley (vocals)
– Dr. Gore (guitars)
– Brendan Burdick (bass)