Sometimes, music is just not music, comes with an important message and bears with important themes.
“Unthinkable Tragedy” speaks about mass shootings, and tries to bring awareness to those left behind in those unthinkable tragedies Having said that, short introduction to the band:
BEYOND THE GREY is a Kansas City based Rock/Metal band, made up of five members with years of collective experience. They have now been writing and recording together for close to 3 years. Some call them a mix of
DISTURBED and
ALICE IN CHAINS, but other influences include
GODSMACK,
TOOL, KORN, THE CURE, DEFTONES, LED ZEPPELIN, PINK FLOYD, and
CHEAP TRICK. As this paragraph is taken from their bio, I would agree that the biggest influence are coming from
Disturbed and
Alice In Chains. From the former, they have taken some heaviness in the compositions and some musical structure, from the latter I would say that they have been inspired by some hypnotic construction as well as vocal structure (e.g.
“Finally Free”).
The bass-driven
“Now or Never” opens the album with a slow-mid pace, trying from the very beginning to make the pain visible to the listener.
“Unthinkable tragedy” is one of the most direct and easiest song in the album, and although not mentioned in the influences, it recalls me of
ALTER BRIDGE, and the riffing of
Marc Tremonti, in particular. A (always) super present bass is introducing the rocky
“Overflow”, where an impressive work on the guitar is done (I can see here a lot of influences from
Zakk Wylde), but what really stands out is the rhythmic session. The album closes with
“No More”, and here, especially in the drumming, the influence from
DISTURBED is quite obvious.
“Unthinkable Tragedy” is a strong and solid release, which has the merit not to be limited on the music, but is going over and tries to discuss and bring to the attention a problem that is unfortunately very present in the American society. It misses, in my opinion, some highlights, resulting at the end quite plain. But worth a listening, especially for the relentless drums and bass.
Songwriting: 6
Originality: 6
Memorability: 6
Production: 7