Liste der Bands Heavy Metal Night Mistress The Back of Beyond

Poland is best known for it's killer Death Metal bands, with redundant routines carried on throughout their discographies. I try to avoid falling into traps like those. On the other hand, I've got the debut album from a Polish Heavy Metal band. How exotic! When I saw that this one was available, I volunteered to do it faster than a dog can raise it's leg.

When I finally got it in the mail, I was surprised to see that it was mailed from about 400 miles away, in the neighboring state of California. There is an interesting story behind that and it goes like this. The band recorded this album last year in Poland, while the band was unsigned. Then they had track 3, Children of Fire, put on a promotional compilation disc by a record company based in Hollywood. It's a speedy song of shredding, with an intricate guitar hook, driven with melodic bass rhythms. That strategy worked out well for the band as they were signed by Hell Rider Records, in Los Angeles earlier this spring. The Back of Beyond was released about 2 or 3 weeks ago and is only distributed in North America. As of now, they are also looking to get signed with other labels overseas to broaden their distribution.

The music is heavy, melodic, and dramatic all within the course of each track. The songs range from a usual medium tempo, as is typical in Heavy Metal music, with slower speeds that emphasize the vocals. But it's dramatic in more of a Hard Rock sense, than it is melodramatic in the character of a Gothic style, or a Power Metal chunk of cheese. This is a 5 piece band with a double guitar attack. The musical structures lull you with the dramatic bits and fit in lots of sharp shredding. They keep you entertained with melodic chops, slashes, and some fine fret board work on the solos which rival some of the best Progressive Metal guitarists.

The lyrics were all written by vocalist, Chris Sokolowski. The basic theme seems to be about progressing forward in the life cycle. To forget about the past and to concentrate on the future, seems to be the common thread in the fabric of their message. The vocals of Sokolowski sound very versatile, like Bon Jovi and sometimes like Axel Rose.

Altogether as a whole, the music reminds me of Impellitteri, and Zed Yago. Their style of Heavy Metal is more refined, with the dramatic moments, and not quite as rough as the stuff that I usually expect to hear in the genre. But they do not disappoint, as their music is checkered with so many killer riffs.