11th May 2024

Review: “A Line In The Sand” by Beyond Salvation

Hailing from deepest darkest Manchester, Thrash leaning Heavy Metal act Beyond Salvation have made it eight releases in their seven year career to date with a new EP titled “A Line In The Sand“. A DIY or DIE record, it sees guitars from Jon Pedley and Arun Kamath as well as bass Luke Entwistle recorded by the band themselves while drums were laid down by Owen Ashworth with engineer Chris Taylor (Going Off, Karma’s Puppet, Absolva) at Noiseboy Studios in Salford and vocals and Silver Lining Studios in Denton. That afforded the band the opportunity to take their time to get things how they wanted them to be before handing the finished work off to Lee Anthony Calpee (Carbide, Claw The Thin Ice) for mastering, meaning that the same team that were behind 2021’s “Reascension” twin track affair are behind this one…

…Picking up where “Reassension” left off , Beyond Salvation go for the jugular with “Ghost Machine“, an anthem of a track which has been tried, tested and refined in the live arena for more than a year to this point. A ripper of a cut with Hardcore inspired vocals, it rises from the abyss with a couple of lethal pick slides that throw back to “Burn My Eyes” from Machine Head in style with that same groove laden orientation and aggressive edge. Perpetual forward motion is maintained with powerful gang chant moments, while a momentary burst of blast beats from Ashworth before the face melting old school solo sets if off perfectly like a diamond in the dirt. After such a powerful start “No Way Out” rises like a beast from the black depts with staccato riff breaks galore as the lyrical title track of the record and finds Pedley sounding distinctly like Jamey Jasta of Hatebreed in his tone and pacing early on. Far from mimicry, during this introspective cut which has a sobering melancholic quality despite flavoursome riffs, Pedley mixes up the vocal styling throughout, pushing the band into Stampin’ Ground territory with a Metal meets Hardcore crush as it concludes. The breakdowns are perfectly executed and the end result is something you’ll want to go back to time and time again because it has that snap, that gut punch, that edge that makes all the difference. Continuing in a similar vein with the staccato riff breaks leading the way, “Dead 2 Me” punches hard with pounding percussive battery before another high quality solo catches the attention. The soaring final chorus works very well and ensures that each of the three tracks here are pure dynamite, to the untrained ear the whole thing sounding like it was all recorded in a studio. A clean crisp drum sound in particular helps to give that impression and leaves Beyond Salvation being one of those bands who should be touring around Europe on a regular basis given their abundance of talent. The evidence is all here. [8.5/10]

Track Listing