Genres: Progressive death metal, melodic death metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Wintersun, Aether Realm
Country: Germany
Release date: 12 February 2024
There should be a word in English for that feeling of deflation when met with intense disappointment. A dream I remember vividly was going to the premiere of Dune Part One only to find it was children’s drawings and Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack was replaced by a kazoo. What I remember more than the false memory was the feeling associated with it, going from immense hype to pure disbelief in what was before my eyes in a manner of seconds.
Far Beyond’s 2016 album, A Frozen Flame of Ice, had all the jank of a one-man project but also the ambition of a Wintersun. The “band,” manned by one Eugene Dodenhoeft, left out most blackened influences from his debut and turned his sound into melodic death metal with a heavy synth-lead influence and just a dash of power metal. What struck me about Frozen Flame was the insane production value and songwriting prowess for one guy, especially how well-programmed the drums were. Then, not an ounce of news until eight whole years later.
I was hyped for The End of My Road. Clearly, Eugene had taken his time to make sure this was the best album he could’ve possibly created. Eight years in development means it was going to be incredible, right? Surely my first paragraph will have no bearing on my review whatsoever, right??
My first impression upon listening to The End of My Road was asking myself what happened to the production. The natural sounding guitar tone of Frozen Flame has been replaced with a tinny mess that gets completely overshadowed by the symphonics. The vocals sound like they’ve been recorded in a separate room from the rest of the instruments, and somehow have massively downgraded since the last one. But I can forgive bad production, I have plenty of times in other reviews. What I cannot forgive is how poor the songwriting is on this. Like Yngwie once said, “how can less be more?” Frozen Flame had incredibly focused songwriting, even with the average prog song lengths and nearly an hour run time. Plenty of moments stuck with me upon first listen because there weren’t six-thousand layers in each song. I love layered songwriting, but there’s a huge difference between layers and padding, and this album has a ridiculous amount of padding.
See, a good melodeath band plays with their dynamics and knows when to back off with the epic feeling, just to make those sweeping symphonics hit so much harder. Practically this entire album is constantly at an eleven in terms of intensity, leaving no breathing room for any one moment to shine. Sure, everything bar the production is competently performed, but there’s no room for any of the songs to breathe. Take the aptly named ‘A Symphony of Light’. A nearly eleven-minute orchestral onslaught sounds awesome in theory but just becomes tiring when the only quiet point is at the very end.
‘Tempus Fugit’ is the only song that does this right on the whole album, and became my favorite upon first listen. It’s a song that shows Eugene hasn’t lost his way in terms of songwriting, though has undoubtedly gotten lost in the symphonic sauce. The build towards the end of this song with his lovely clean vocals giving way to a Maiden-esque gallop and lead shows there’s still genius in there buried deep within a million layers of bloated orchestration.
Overall, I’d mark Road a deep, deep disappointment. Not a bad album, but a medium rare one that required a lot more time to cook, despite eight whole years in the skillet. Eugene’s still a great songwriter, but has been dabbling in his Wintersun influence a bit too much for my taste. However, hopefully this means he’s found that songwriting spark again, and we can expect a much better outcome next time. Sorry, Eugene, you missed the mark on this one.
Recommended tracks: Tempus Fugit
You may also like: Atavistia
Final verdict: 4.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Prosthetic Records – Bandcamp | Facebook
Far Beyond is:
– Eugene Dodenhoeft (Everything)
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