Beyond Dreams Of Grandeur

Beyond Dreams Of Grandeur EP

Written by: TL on 13/10/2011 14:01:13

Right, so this next review, featuring the self-titled debut EP of UK quintet Beyond Dreams Of Grandeur, is going to be quite brief and blunt. There are two main reasons for this: 1) The EP has 'TOO SOON' written all over it and 2) The band called it quits five days ago. Whether or not they did so due to this EP not having the desired impact, I cannot say, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was indeed so. On the EP, the five guys go for a lofty, dramatic take on the whole post-hardcore approach, with metallic yet melodic guitars and clean/harsh vocal combos aplenty. Problem(s) is(/are) however, that the production is average at best, the guitars are too vanilla (both in sound and composition) and the vocals quite honestly reek of amateurism. I'm not saying singer Joe Morton can't sing at all, but he sounds decisively like a man who's trying hard, in a job that requires you to sound like you're doing effortlessly, at least if you want a shot at impressing anyone.

It doesn't take much more than that for me to conclude that "Beyond Dreams Of Grandeur" is probably an EP the band should not have released before having rehearsed a good deal more, nor before having gathered enough money or home-recording experience to use on a better production. Seeing as they released it like this, the only thing their it's really good for is for them to look at each other and say "hey guys, we actually did it, and we can do it better if we do it again". I'm not trying to be mean, I'm just saying that this is not good enough to make an impact. It's not all out awful, because careful listening will reveal that the band has some of the right ideas with the arrangements of both their normal instruments, some (probably sampled?) violin the various vocal styles. It just all falls flat because of the simplistic playing, the sub-par singing and the average production, especially in a genre that's been hot commodity for a while now. It's like bringing a spoon to a bazooka fight, and honestly, the fans of this kind of stuff are just too damn spoiled by now to make note of something like this.

4

Download: Sobriquet, The World Loves An Underdog
For The Fans Of: discovering dramatic, melodic, metal/post-hard/emocore bands waaaay early in their career
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Release Date 12.09.2011
Self-Released

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