Beaten To Death – Xes And Strokes

Categories: Reviews

Originally Published on: January 13, 2012

According to Beaten To Death’s website ,actually just a poorly managed REVERBNATION page where it isn’t even clear who is on what instrument- , “Beaten To Death was born out of a necessity for speed…They found one common ground, speed. The rest is history.”

From that one might expect to get a full on assault of blindingly breakneck riffs at the cost of any melody or feel. Luckily, this is not the case. Whoever is managing the band’s site is selling them extremely short (and should really put some more effort into the whole presentation). This Oslo based bunch of brutal riff wranglers have a lot more tricks up their combined sleeve than just speed! During the course of the 18 minutes it takes to traverse this 9 song collection of magnificent mayhem the band gives a nice mix of varied speeds… Sometimes all at once!!!

There are a few times when Beaten To Death masterfully mix insanely fast psycho blast-beat drumming with tasty riffs and wonderfully juxtaposed melody lines. For me this element hits its pinnacle in “3-2-1, It’s On” where the bass backs out to make plenty of space for the mosh pit on your psyche performed by blast-beaten drums over quirkily competing guitar arpeggios. Then, just when you are about to collapse from the stress, the bass joins back in to take you on the weighty march of the broken necks!

Fortunately, these guys know that heavy doesn’t necessarily mean fast. The gravity of their slower chunking dirges could hold its own with a black hole. The pull of the mid-tempo dirge at the heart of “A Soulless Alarm” with its anthemic vocals actually takes the song deeper into the depths than I thought possible during its epic intro. Yes, the speed may have been the common ground, but dynamics and weightiness are the history that is being written here.

The toolbox these guys have access to must be the size of a warehouse. And they know how and when to use these tools. The orchestration and arrangements are brilliant; leaving plenty of breathing room in the wall of heavy assed noise. Things like violin imitating volume swells on the guitars, harmonized bends, and ‘Earth A.D.’ style feedback are all used in context and to great effect! The combination of the guttural vocal with the angst ridden higher vocal prone to screaming combine perfectly to bring the entire world Beaten To Death have created to completion.

I am highly impressed by the production on this collection of songs. Although compression was definitely used on many of the elements to achieve the individual tones, the final mixes were spared the detrimental yet commonplace smashing by over-compression. All of the individual, super intense elements are clearly audible while still coming together as a perfectly cohesive group. If I have a complaint, it’s that the kick drum is too clicky for me; it is called a ‘bass’ drum after all. However, I acknowledge that this super clicked kick has become the standard for the faster double kick contingent. Overall, bravo to the mixer/producer/engineer!

On the last song, “Xes And Strokes” the guys hit us with one last surprise to put a huge smile on our faces and a dip in our hips. Throughout the entire 18 minutes the bassist lays out a solid as steal foundation with some intensely cool grooves and fills, but on ‘Xes and Strokes’ he lays down such a big ass funky groove that by the end of the song you’ll find yourself doing a James Brown slide back to the stereo to hit play again… and again!

Now, fix that web-page and get us more!