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Hidden Temple of Obscurity
Formed as SHAPELESS and under that moniker they released two demos in 2010, "Promotional Desecrations" and "Repellent of Ascend The Abhorrent". Later that year, the guys change the moniker of the band to BEYOND name, which has a better description of the feelings from their music. Under that name they already work on new "Relentless Abomination Vortex" stuff, which is released in 2011 and review of this material you can also read in our website. At the moment we asked band for an interview, they just released a new "Enter Transcendence" EP by Iron Bonehead Productions. A two-song EP, which will open your inside and penetrates through your feelings into your darkest depths and sickest forms. Dark scratchy old school Death Metal put into stores with almost diabolical precision and review of "Enter Transcendence" will come soon. The answers were provided by R., R. and N. in a random way.


Hell-o, there are still only two years from your beginning and you have officially released one great demo tape. Could you write more circumstances that led you to the formation of BEYOND band?
R.: With Beyond we aimed for creating the band we would run into the store to track down their material right away. After being not satisfied with how our Shapeless-material turned out back then (according to my aims), some personal differences and the regular Crap, I decided to split up Shapeless and bury it under that moniker, since this band was 50% Andreas, the drummer and 50% me, even if I wrote the songs. After the foundation of Beyond, N. got involved as well. with whom I had written some Death Metal Songs a long time ago (As "Into Nowhere"). From there it went until now in Autumn 2012, we finally have the perfect Line-up, with our new Bassplayer who was the invisible 5th member the whole time anyway.

Your first stuff "Relentless Abomination Vortex" is already some time out. What responses have you got so far? Which bands are you frequently likened to?
R.: I think the responses were quite good, which surprises me looking at it now, since it’s a really crappy played Demo according to my standards; I don’t care about it anymore. 
It has a nice dirty feeling to it though. But it’s all subjective and I leave it up to the listener.

R.:   I was surprised how decent that recording turned out. At that time I was more a dirty helper than a real band member so I'm quite passionate about this. It was amazing to see it sold out that fast, especially in a "market" where death metal bands playing the old style seem to spread out of the ground literally. However BEYOND is much more focused on the future than the past. The new material obliterates the demo.


I noticed your band was preceded by another SHAPELESS band; frankly, I have not heard this material. Was SHAPELESS musically different from BEYOND? What led you to change the name?
R.: Shapeless simply was the first step of a natural progress and evolution every band goes through. It sounded very unexperienced in all ways possible, that’s the way it had to be for me to learn and to understand certain ways. As mentioned above, the change of the name is connected to my great friend and old Drummer of Shapeless.

R.: Shapeless was far more primitive and less professional in style. While being so, it definitely had a lot of soul and blunt garage-brutality to it, considering it was the first ever musickal project of R.
You can clearly hear the difference between SHAPELESS and BEYOND. It was a logical step.


Your Death Metal style is crushing like a jump into the turbulent waterfall of blood, demonstration of aggression and brutality with very sophisticated compositions and atmosphere of scary feelings. What do you take care up to compose new songs? Do you find the atmosphere and composition as the most fundamental elements?
R.: For me it’s most important that a song grabs you by the balls, has something to say, the power to take you away. Most of my compositions come spontaneously to mind - I fall into a raging inspirational state of mind - which can happen during a simple walk, lying in bed or breakfast - and I simply come up with them as if it was nothing. The Composition is the next, the tougher part - to put all those ideas together into a certain "flow". Atmosphere is something every artistic output has, in a way…the atmosphere is the whole entity, the music reflects. Needless to say, it’s very important, even though it comes automatically in a certain direction.

R.: A song that lacks atmosphere and soul is just a bunch of riffs messed together. There's more to deep songwriting where all riffs blend together resulting some demonic atmosphere or pure brutality. Composing a song for BEYOND means relentless violence put into the instrument, simple as that. Atmosphere comes along naturally. Apart from this, any retard can tune his guitar down to B or lower and play slow.... this is NOT what BEYOND is about.


Who write the most music? What is the writing process? Do you have some single formula for writing, or it is always an individual different process?
R.:  R. (voc,git) has written almost all material to date on his own. This will probably change in future as there'll be input from all other members. There's already enough material for a full length album that will be recorded sometime in 2013 when everything goes right, so that will be worked on first.

R: For this first stage of this band, up until the entire material of our debut, I had the dictatorship in terms of songwriting, which will change from now on, since everyone in this band is very skilled and inspired. There are some parts, riffs and ideas of the others thrown in already, though. Look at question Nr. 4 for the latter.


Your music has incredible energy; strong aura and feeling of emptiness from the music is completely perverted. When I listen to your songs, I feel like I'm listening to a bunch of old veterans long operating on the scene, and not a band with a couple of demos. Do you also feel you immediately reached a high level of playing and everything works more than well?
R.: The music reflects us. We're always out for the highest, unbound, hungry.  So you got that impression fairly right. Those 7" Songs you listened to are nearly 3 years old, but I planned to release them as a short EP back then already, that’s why they came after the Demotape, and even with our newest material we feel like haven’t reached our maximal potential  yet.

R.: Each time you have a new release out (as an artist, musician, or whatever) you're of course hyping it for yourself. As time goes, you'll find out which details need to be improved. The musicianship of BEYOND is way better now than it was at the time the demo was released. Compared to most of the redundant stuff out there that is considered "death metal" nowadays, we're already operating from top of the pyramid to answer your question. As for ourselves, this is of course not enough yet. We've not yet reached what we see as a blunt force trauma "over-the-top" level. Stagnation is death.


What are your goals as for BEYOND? It’s clear to me that you do not want any mega label around or to play with the biggest bands of the Metal industry and to be in the center of attention of the media, so?
R.: To create the best Musick possible is the only goal I aim for. To go against this whole asslicking "Support and Love amongst each other -Big Family" crap in (Death) Metal recently. Where did any honor or competitive thinking go? Just look back at the Early "Inner Circle" Stuff like Mayhem (With De Mysteriis..), or at Records such as "Altars of Madness", "Spiritually Uncontrolled Art" etc. The quality of those records was so high because they had real fury, clear visions and competitive thinking! They wanted to outmatch the others, they weren’t satisfied with achieving the sound of the band they like the most in a B-Side Quality kinda way like most of bands today  (i.E. getting the Guitars sound like on Left hand Path and be already pleased with adding some shitty D-Beat-Punk-Riffs to it) they pushed the boundaries further!! Major labels can suck my dick UNLESS they pay me a REAL good % off a sold record and don't have anything to say concerning our records, which wouldn't be the case in reality. The only thing that motivates me gaining a certain "popularity" is obtaining the chance to play all over the world, we all love to travel and to discover, so why not combining it with obliterating some stages with our horribly offensive Vibes?

R.:   Raise the threshold of underground death metal. Playing with bigger bands and big label coverage? Only to blow all that crap off stage.


Your music acts generally scary, dangerous and certainly serious. Many bands often said they play extreme Metal just for fun. How do you get it on your own? Is it something special for you to play in BEYOND? What does this band mean to you?
R.: It means a whole fucking lot to me, channeling my inner beast and bastard, expressing the sepulchral side to my personality. Otherwise I couldn't live balanced at all. The feelings that force me to pick up the guitar and put them into music certainly ain't no "funny" ones. (Real good) Extreme Metal can NEVER emerge "just for fun" (except for the fun that goes with composing and playing it), since it’s integrated in the term "Extreme" already that only a EXTREME person can be able to deliver qualitative "EXTREME Metal". The bands that play this music "for fun“ simply shouldn’t expect people who have a certain serious attitude towards this art to like it, and that’s all I will say concerning this topic.

R.:    DEATH METAL was never supposed to be the opposite of what you mentioned first. It's fun to see these people vanish and sell their instruments. This style of music was and is still a big treasure in my mind. I can tell you why some kids can play just because of fun: because the so-called "scene" let's them and all the big mags support this shit. DEATH METAL has to become violent and unhealthy once again with people literally bleeding, having broken bones after gigs.


Where comes the inspiration for your music from? Could you write which bands are inspirations to you? What about non-musical spheres of influence? Do you always write new songs with a pure mind? I mean some drugs etc.
R.: Inspiration derives from a whole bunch of sources. One of my sources is my energy searching its way out. We don't look up to any bands anymore, like we did when we were 17 or 18, I don't even listen to that much Death Metal anymore these days so I'm not inspired from it, but rather from my own personality, goals and aims. When I was younger though certain Riffing-Masters from Göteborg, Florida, Texas or L.A. taught me some important things concerning the guitar, and I would never deny this. But I ALWAYS wanted to put those lessons into my OWN style and that's the most important thing to me. I don’t want to condemn all drugs, but we don’t use them in terms of inspiration. Actually, we never do HARD drugs, except for some C2H6O., I guess.

R.:   Everything I think about or listen to is inspiring. May it be old metal, selected newer stuff, dark ambient, non-metal musick or books about forbidden topics. Even a normal walk in daylight can activate certain patterns in my mind that induce "strange sounds" that would later be interpreted on a guitar. It's both complicated and simple at the same time.


Absolutely I am impressed by your sound, new songs are highly authentic and inhuman, and I think this will be the envy of many bands from Sweden. Where the new songs were recorded and how
are you satisfied with the sound?
R.: We recorded it in East Germany with Hatespawn Patrick "Angel of Disease" Engel. It turned out just the way we wanted; he's truly a great producer. Go check his site. www.templeofdisharmony.com

Personally, your sound reminds me newer bands from Sweden, I would mention names as REPUGNANT, GRAVELESS, MIASMAL and the like. Do you listen to these new bands? Who are your favorites from this scene?

R.:    I've lost interest in REPUGNANT after seeing them live with the new look and lineup. Should explain itself. It's quite dubious to compare us to the other ones mentioned. I don't like most current Swedish death metal at all. Almost all of the newer bands from there have no idea how to create extremely dark and punishing riff sections. Most of that stuff is advertised as being influenced by MORBID ANGEL and such but I only see the guitarists playing safe notes i.e. nowhere near the real insane picking speed. Also, in my book, they lack flow/feeling in terms of atmospheric fast riffing that makes you hypnotized when listening to it. But I really couldn't care less.... Give me "Close to a world below" anyday and I'll forget Sweden anno 2012...

R.: .  No, I don't listen to these new bands with very few exceptions. Repugnant lost their magick to me as well, after this Lineup-Change I don't find them as cool as 5 years ago anymore, but I still love their Musical Releases.


Your first demo was released or distributed by Detest Records, currently you have listed Iron Bonehead label on Metal Archives. Does it mean next material will come for them?
R.. BEYOND have signed an album deal with Iron Bonehead. The answer is YES.

There is now a new question arises about the material. Could you say when and what format will be a new stuff out? Are you in a hurry for the release of debut? Do you have an idea which label would eventually release a full album?
R . The 7" is already released - should be 2nd press right now. The first full length album will be released sometime in 2013 also by Iron Bonehead.

You are from Germany, so could you say what’s your view on German Death Metal scene? Besides you I also like bands like NECROS CHRISTOS, VENENUM, ABYSSOUS, PHILOSOPHER, HATESPAWN or DROWNED and CHARON, it seems your scene is really growing and spreading wings of disgust...
R.: I don't care for any "scene" or something man, I've always been a total individual and "lone wolf" doing my isolated thing….Nevertheless, you mentioned a few bands I have some respect for above and it’s true, there’s quite some Death Metal emerging from Alemania all of a sudden…let's see if someone of them actually comes up with a album that will stand the test of time- we for one work hard on this as we speak.

R.:   I'm not involved in any scene at all, I can count down all the contacts I have in probably two hands of it all. I don't care...


How do you take your lyrics? Do you attach them same weight as the music? Could you describe the topics you find most fascinating? Where inspiration comes in these areas from? Here I would also ask the American writer H. P. Lovecraft, are you familiar with his work?
R.: "Yes, the lyrics have to be equally good as the music. I'm really trying to come up with good terms, metaphors and rhymes that are synonymous for the song itself. It depends on the song which words are chosen and which level of complexity the lyrics have. Some are just straight forward brutal, some have a deep message, and some are just describing a certain place or feeling. Sometimes I re-do some lyrics a thousand times until it sounds perfect to me, EVERYTHING has to be as good as possible in Beyond.

What are your concert activities? How many live gigs have you played? Have you played outside of Germany? How does it look on your live shows? Are there frantic mosh pits under the stage?
We played four times so far, of which all shows suffered from some immense sound problems, that’s something we want to improve by far. As for Germany, there’s never any real violence going on, I have to say German Crowds are really unthankful, boring and uninspiring as hell, that's why we aim to play as little shows as possible here, totally not worth it. I think it has to do with the engorgement when it comes to concerts in Germany. Our first concert in France on the other hand was great concerning the audience, some went really berserk, that’s the way I like it.

Do you have provided some merchandise, or something going to prepare in the near future for the fans? Do you know where you have the most fans, where people write to you most from?
You can purchase a Shirt with our Logo and the Title of our 7" under it as Muscle, Shirt or Sweater. (Grey, White, Red, Black) Any Sizes possible, write me: Beyonddeathmetal@yahoo.de





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R. R. N.                                                   29. 10. 2012 Mortuary
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