I misplaced the bio that accompanied Beyond Terror Beyond Grace’s Still Human, Still Humane? so I headed over to Grindhead Records’ website to find out some background info on the band. What I discovered is that Beyond Terror Beyond Grace are an Australian-based grinding death metal outfit that apparently started out as a Napalm Death and Converge cover band. I also found out that the other zines that reviewed this album are filled with morons who couldn’t tell their dick from their nipple.

The problem with these other zines is that the people reviewing them didn’t seem to get beyond the bio and actually paid attention to the music. There are references to Beyond Terror Beyond Grace sounding like Napalm Death, Circle Of Dead Children, Exhumed, Cannibal Corpse, Discharge, Pig Destroyer, Rotten Sound, Autopsy and Carcass. Are you fucking high? Scratch that… how fucking high are you? If you like an album, that’s fine, but when you start making musical comparisons that have no basis you’re just making yourself look like an ass and setting up your readers for disappointment when they purchase the album expecting it to sound like something it clearly does not. Let me school you daft cunts on how to properly review an album.

First off, Beyond Terror Beyond Grace play mid-high paced simplistic grinding death metal. Ignore the influences above because they really don’t apply. The only similarities one could make to any of the aforementioned acts is the material on Still Human, Still Humane? is the death metal-type material is as simplistic as Eaten Back To Life-era Cannibal Corpse, even if it sounds absolutely nothing like it. The Circle Of Dead Children reference I think relates to the vocals which range from deep guttural snarl to a black metal rasp, but I wouldn’t put it in the same league as the vocals of Joe Horvath. I have no idea where the Napalm Death reference keeps coming from, other than the fact that Beyond Terror Beyond Grace play grinding death metal and Napalm Death also play grinding death metal, but other than being in a similar musical niche, there are no similarities between the two bands.

What Beyond Terror Beyond Grace sounds like is the first demo of a group of high school kids playing in their first metal band who haven’t been playing music for very long and are really just learning the basics. That’s not to say the material contained on Still Human, Still Humane? is bad, it does show there is potential for the band to grow and develop. Take, for instance, Cephalectomy. The first time I heard them they were called Morbid Atrophy and their demo was really raw. They played really simplistic music with a really rough production. Over the span of 10 years they eventually grew into a very solid act. Right now, Beyond Terror Beyond Grace are at the Morbid Atrophy stage; they haven’t found their own style yet, they’re kind of hovering between niches and styles and seem very green to the songwriting process.

In 2-3 years, Beyond Terror Beyond Grace may be worth checking out, but right now, they’re just a garage band playing music that sounds so similar to the shitty raw demo tapes from the hundreds of bands that were sending me demos 10 years ago that I can’t be bothered to listen to beyond the few listens necessary to give them a proper review. I don’t recommend this album and if you have heard it and do think they sound like any of the aforementioned bands, please send me a bag of whatever it is you’re smoking… unless it’s meth, in which case that explains everything.

Written By: Teufel