Mithras - Worlds Beyond the Veil
Golden Lake Productions
Experimental Brutal Death Metal
13 songs (67:42)
Release year: 2003
Mithras
Reviewed by Thomas
Archive review

During my short time as a reviewer for this site, this has to be the most difficult albums I’ve had to review. The emotions Worlds Beyond the Veil spawn within me is so hard to translate into words, I can’t even begin to explain it. Chaotic is probably the proper word for the stream of energy that flows through my body and soul upon listening to this piece of art. ‘Cause that’s what it is, a piece of refreshingly innovative art. Worlds Beyond the Veil is Mithras’ second full-length and maybe their most experimental to date. It was released in 2003, and received a massive amount of positive reviews, and rightfully so.

The bleak yet majestic 6-minnute introduction Portal of The… leads the way to a gateway of chaos. The terrifying sounds these guys are able to create lay a horror-like atmosphere that lurks beneath it all. Throughout the whole record, and as the cover implies, the wordless beauty of the universe are played and expressed through the hate-filled and aggressive music that is extreme metal. This’ll go far in confusing your senses and will therefore be hard to get into at first. As I’m not the most lectured death metal expert around, this was way out of my grasp when I first got it. However, even then I could hear that this was something I might fully enjoy in the future, and boy did it hit me like a ton of asteroids as the cosmic wave of beauty blew me completely away. The title-track opens the portal to a dimension of blast-beats, savage frequencies and shattering vocals, that are not always your typical death metal grunts, but rather shouting growls that’ll rip your head off. The outstanding brilliance of the organized chaos explodes into wandering, yet interesting leads that’ll make you lost in space (pardon the Avantasia-pun).

Absorbing my mind with pinched harmonics all over the place, hyper-fast drumming and incredible anger, Bequeath Thy Visions clouds your mind with an other-worldly black magic. Once you’ve got this, your mind is going to be glued to the amazing musicianship of these very skilled partners in crime. The madness continues with The Caller and the Listener before the beautiful interlude Break the Worlds’ Divide lulls you into a trance and opens the cursed portal to another world beyond the veil. The space-y guitar riffs kicks off another deadly energy beam asLords and Masters combines some thrash metal riffs with Raynor Cross' twisted, roaring croaks. The ever so frantic guitar-work and squealing solo’s race through the galaxy with incredible speed as Psyrens returns Mithras to the death-fest they’ve already created.

The only gripe people seem to have with this album is the production. While I can understand it in one way, nothing would’ve fit this better. The overall atmospheric and dream-y yet closed up production gives you the feeling that you’re trapped in the middle of a cosmic nowhere. The sound is of universal size, which fits the theme and the feeling this album give you like a glove. The incredible Voices in the Void continues the journey as the not so guttural roars of Cross leads the way through dark passages of sun-winds and falling stars. Mid-paced songs are a rarity here, but if there are any, it has to be the The Sands of Time which whips its way through every obstacle like supersonic hurricane.

If I were to complain on anything, it has to be that the album starts to drag a little towards the end, and especially since the 13+ minute closer Beyond the Eyes of Man contains roughly three minutes of metal and ten minutes of astronomical keyboard sounds. However, if you’re in the right mood for this record, everything should be in place for a spellbinding listen from the first moment of Portal to the… through the huge Beyond the Eyes of Man. I’m normally not very fond of interludes, however, the mystical mood Mithras create with every single one of them has single-handedly attached my interest to this huge album. Don’t let the first impression of this fool you into thinking that this is nothing but space waste. If you’re a patient listener, this is something that will most definitely grow on you, as it’ll awaken your senses from moment number one. I’ll quote one of the few smart “Kerrang!”-writers for the bottom line: “Complex, inspired and exploratory this is the kind of boldly cinematic death metal that demands to be relished. This is truly astonishing, world-class music.” I couldn’t have said it better myself

Killing Songs :
All
Thomas quoted 92 / 100
Goat quoted 89 / 100
Other albums by Mithras that we have reviewed:
Mithras - On Strange Loops reviewed by Goat and quoted 85 / 100
Mithras - Time Never Lasts (EP) reviewed by Goat and quoted no quote
Mithras - Forever Advancing... Legions reviewed by Goat and quoted 90 / 100
Mithras - Behind The Shadows Lie Madness reviewed by Dylan and quoted 88 / 100
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