Beyond Mortal Dreams

Sometimes you don't want to listen to complex, progressive technical death metal. Sometimes you just want simple, droning guitar riffs and guttural vocals that barely resemble words. Beyond Mortal Dreams stick with the thick, blood-soaked roots of death metal on their Dreaming Death EP. The musicianship is top-notch, as the sweeping guitar solos and heavy drums demonstrate, and there are various riffs and beats that grab your attention. But, unfortunately, the album, for the most part, lacks originality. Not that there's anything wrong with competency, but in a genre that's so heavily saturated, this particular blend of death metal is becoming stagnant. Dreaming Death contains four good death metal songs, but offers the listener nothing new.