Nottingham, UK based death metal act Beyond Grace are gearing up to release their second album, Our Kingdom Undone, on September 3rd – the quintet’s first full length record under the Prosthetic Records banner. Our Kingdom Undone sees Beyond Grace refining and redefining their modern death metal sound into something that’s simultaneously more intricate and more intense than ever before, combining conceptually ambitious songwriting and high octane heaviness in equal measure.
Pre-order Our Kingdom Undone here while you can read about 3 albums that have influenced the band a lot musically below…
Testament – The Gathering
What more is there to say about this record? The Gathering is simply one of the best albums of all time, from a band at the absolute top of their game. It’s just hit after hit after hit, anthem after anthem… and that’s exactly what we said we wanted for our album – every riff needed to be powerful and memorable, every song (no matter how complex) needed to be a potential “single”, and every member of the band needed to bring their absolute A-game (and did). Testament really set the bar here, and it’s one we’ll always keep on reaching for.
Nordic Giants – Amplify Human Vibration
A subtle, but extremely important, influence on the new album. These guys have always created astonishingly dynamic and cinematic music, but it was their ability to communicate a specific set of ideas or emotions using quotes and samples which got us thinking about how to add that same sort of extra layer of depth and meaning in order to enhance what we were trying to say. In many ways the message on Our Kingdom Undone is just as important as the music, and a lot of that was inspired directly by Nordic Giants. And, hey, if they ever want to collaborate…
Slugdge – Escoteric Malacology
Less of a direct influence and more of a welcome inspiration, this album came out when we were right in the middle of writing Our Kingdom Undone, and helped reassure us that we were moving in the right direction and that we didn’t have to stick to standard song structures or do things a certain way. We might not have had the confidence to do something like the creepy, spoken-word verses in Persona Non Grata, or to go all out with the album’s title-track, if we hadn’t been inspired to keep pushing ourselves thanks to Slugdge.
