Mithras - Worlds Beyond The Veil (Candlelight Records)

By Chris Barnes

I don’t know anything about Mithras outside of a Terrorizer review I breezed through that basically heralded them as the Second Coming. If I were a musician and I got a review like that, I’d quit figuring that it’d be all downhill after that. After I supplied the writer with top shelf hookers and rad tootskie.

Worlds Beyond The Veil is the work of Leon Macy (guitars/drums) and Rayner Cross (vox/guitar) and is certainly the most interesting release I’ve heard this year. I’m not even going to try to go into the lyrical concept behind the album because I don’t have a clue what the fuck they are on about. Something about heaven, evolution and telepathy. If the plot line doesn’t read like an episode from Everybody Loves Raymond, I’m lost.

Musically, man oh manoschevitz, this is something. Lush hypnotic space-synth interludes lead into death metal ditties that’ll rip your head clean off … then back to the space rock, repeat. This all comes to a head with the 13 minute opus “Beyond the Eyes of Man” which has a little of both. Unconventional to say the least, I can’t really recall anything I can compare this to for a baseline. Trey Azagtoth and Phil Sandoval on the Hawkwind tip? Dunno. Best I can do.

The overall sound is very different for a death metal release as well… at times you get the distinct impression that Worlds Beyond the Veil was recorded live at Royal Albert Hall -it’s huge - the guitars, drums and bass have a hint of reverb, almost like the acoustic echo in a large hall designed for a symphony. Definitely different and I dig it but if your looking for Neil Kernon-like production, might wanna try the new Deicide instead.

I can highly recommend this if you’re an open-minded sort. I know that doesn’t come easy for the died-in-the-wool Death Metal fans that want to hear Covenant over and over again. To you I say this.. try it, you might like it.

Visit the Mithras website